
Glass. 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



-rxsrrsrTrmxrf!3f:r- 



The 

American Shotgun 

By Charles Askins 



Copiously illustrated with halftones from 
photographs and diagrammatic drawings 
by the author. 




NEW YORK 
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MCMX 



(^e 



A^ 

.K^' 



CorvniGiiT, 1910, by 
ouriNc; puBLisHiN(; company 

ENTKRKD AT S'lA TlONliRS' HAIX, LONDON. ENGLAND 



yltl riehts reserved 



•)CU2784(;.'5 



CONTENTS 



PARI" 1 

Chapter 

I. Gener^vl Observations on Arms Past 
AND Present .... 
II. Construction of Shotgun 

III. The Frame ..... 

IV. Gun Stocks ..... 
V. Trigcers and Trigger Pull and the 

Single Trigc;er . . . . 

VI. The Matter of Engra\'ing 

VII. Grades and Prices . . . . 

VIII. Repeating and Automatic Shotguns 

IX. Fitting the Gun to the Man 

X. Gauges and Charges .... 

XI. Chokes — Patterns and Velocities 

XII. The Care of the Gun 



Page 

17 
25 
35 
51 

61 

73 
84 

I "5 
ii4 
130 

154 
179 



PART II 

I. Wing-Shooting Problems . 
II. One Eve Aiming. Binocular Shoot- 
ing. Gun Pointing . 

III. Snap-Shooting. Deliberate Swing 

Rapid Swing ... 

IV. Primary Lessons 

V. Some Shooting Psychology 
VI. Speed of Flight. Where to Hold 
Judging Distances 
VII. Hints on Shooting Different Game 
Birds ...... 

VIII. Field Etiquette .... 



191 
202 

220 

235 
249 

265 

281 
308 



LIST OI' ILLL'STRATIOXS. 



Uravvinj^s Slio\vinjL( rioltinj^ Meclianisms 
iJrawinj^s of Ouintuple Fastenini^ and of Kotar\ 

Cnjss-ljolt ..... 

Stevens Compressed Steel Darrcls 
Ithaca iJoltinj^ Mechanism 
.Side-plate Lock ..... 
Tumhler Safety ..... 
The Snap I-'ore-end .... 
The I'arker I'^jector and the Ithaca Ejector 
'I'he Hunter Single Tri^'^a-r 
The Infallihle Sinj^^le Trij.(,i(er 
Wealth of Ornainentation on The Sauer (iun 
Style of I'jij^^ravin^ of the Winchester Company 
The niamond Daly — Ccrman St\le of Engraving 
The r.aker I.Jrush ; Smith Knockabout; Stevens 

I'ield (jrade ..... 
The I'ox "Sterlinj^worth" 
The 1>. (jrade. i'^o.x .... 

The Parker Knockaljout 
.Smith I'"ield and Trap I'jector 
Haker l'araj.,'on Crade 
I'arker $ioo (jrade .... 

The Stevens l-'icld and Trajj and the Baker E.xjjert 
The $750 Cjrade L. C. Smith 
The Ilif^hest Cjrade .Sauer .... 
The $400 Cjrade Ithaca .... 

The $500 JJiamond Daly .... 

The $500 Ihjx 

The Winchester, Remington an<l Stevens Repeat 

inj:^ Shoti^uns ..... 

Cnnstock Measurinj^ ..... 
The Monte Carlo Coml). .... 
.Measurements of Stock for .Single Trigger 



CAGE 

20 

2\ 

39 
42 
46 
55 

57 
66 

^>7 
74 

77 
80 

87 
90 
92 

93 
94 
95 
96 
98 

99 
100 

lOI 

102 
103 

106 

"5 
120 

125 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

The i6-Gauge Sauer 142 

The i6-Gauge Marlin and the 20-Gauge Parker 147 
An IdeaHzed Pattern of a Modified Choke . . 161 
Method of Analyzing a Pattern . . . .163 
Size of Circles in Which Various Degrees of Choke 

Will Throw Their Patterns . . . - 165 
Pattern Showing the Futility of Shooting Large 

Shot in Small Gauges, Open Bored . -177 
Binocular Shooting, or Gun Pointing . . 208 

Gun Pointing — Both Eyes Open . . . .212 
Targets With Rifle, Showing the Result of Gun 

Pointing Without Sights . . . .219 

Diagram Showing Rough Snap, Semi-snap, and 

Rapid Swing . . . . . . .221 

The Difference in Lead Between a Snap Shot and 

a Swinging Shot ...... 229 

Estimating a Bird's Distance by His Apparent Size 

and the Plainness of his Markings . . 275 
Estimating the Distance to Hold Ahead in 

Lengths of the Bird ..... 278 
Turning on Him. (From photograph) . . 284 
Shooting High for a Rising Bird. (From photo- 
graph.) 289 

Shooting an Incomer. (From photograph.) . 304 

Right Way to Carry a Gun Afield. (From photo- 

graph.)_ , • , • 319 

Proper Position in Waiting for a Shot. (From 

photograph.) 321 



PREFACE 

A preface can be considered a word of apology, 
an explanation, or a bit of spice to smell good and 
tempt the jaded appetite into eating a concoction. 
No apology should be required for writing a book 
on shotguns at this time, and now if ever the sports- 
man's appetite ought to be keen for just such a 
work. 

However cleverly written, an essay on guns soon 
becomes old and valueless. Changes and improve- 
ments in fire arms have taken place so rapidly that a 
treatise on such weapons dated twenty-five years ago 
might as well have been restricted to the muzzle- 
loader. Probably it will be the same in the future, 
though we of to-day are prone to think that little 
further improvement in double guns is possible. 

Clever magazine articles on sporting arms ap- 
pear from time to time, but in book form nothing of 
note on shotguns has issued from an American press 
in the last generation. Such works as we have on 
the subject are from English authorities, and, un- 
fortunately, are merely more or less carefully dis- 
guised advertisements of some particular make of 
English arm. Reading one of these volumes, the 

II 



12 PREFACE 

conclusion would be unavoidable that there is really 
only one country that can build a shotgun worth 
owning, England, and but one weapon there that 
is quite worth while, the particular arm to which 
the book is devoted. Other British guns are known 
to the author apparently, but are so generally in- 
ferior to the author's favorite that simply mention- 
ing their names would be a waste of valuable space. 
All this despite the fact that the books purport to 
treat of British guns in general. 

The author is a strong believer in American 
guns. He holds that we can not only build a better 
gun for the money than any country, but as good a 
weapon as can be purchased anywhere, for any 
amount of money. 

He hopes to show in the pages that follow a spirit 
of fairness and justice toward all our gunbuilders, 
without fear or partiality or prejudice. Where he 
has v^entured to criticise it has been in the interest 
of the reader as tenciing to future improvements. 
Neither has he considered it necessary to proclaim 
that America alone makes fine guns. What he is 
willing to affirm is that in model and mechanics our 
shotguns are superior and that the system of manu- 
facture developeci here permits our factories to put 
more value into a gun than is possible elsewhere, 
except in such grade of arms as to make the cost of 
no consideration. 

The information and ideas contained in the suc- 
ceeding chapters are mostly the results of a per- 



PREFACE 13 

sonal study of fire arms. Perhaps it is not a grace- 
ful thing to say, but the author can acknowledge 
himself little indebted to any gunbuilder for inside 
or technical information. Such facts as in the na- 
ture of things would be known only to the builders 
have generally been withheld under the plea that 
they are trade secrets. 

For Instance, no manufacturer would give the 
inside diameter of the bore of one of his barrels 
at all points, under the apparent belief that this 
would betray his system of boring. This is rather 
absurd on the face of it since any gunsmith could 
take the measurements at will. Perhaps one of the 
builders puts the matter fairly from their stand- 
point when he states that, "there are a good many 
things which the general public is fully as well off 
without knowing." Notwithstanding this, the writer, 
not believing in the ignorance is bliss foolishness, 
has given all the conclusions at which he could ar- 
rive by a close study of the subject. 

Care has been taken in this book not to give spe- 
cial mention to any make of arm, but all our promi- 
nent gunbullders will be found well represented in 
the illustrations. Many of the latter are from pho- 
tographs taken expressly for this book, and never 
before appearing In print. 

In the wing shooting department of the book the 
writer has found himself obliged to blaze a path of 
his own. With such text books as might have been 
available he was unable to agree for the most part. 



14 PREFACE 



The system of wing shooting here set forth is his 
own, and if it tells anything will add to the sum of 
what has been said before because it is different. 

Thirty years of active life afield have given him 
convictions that for himself personally, to put it in 
a Rooseveltian way, outweighed the conclusions of 
others at such points as we failed to agree. If the 
writer is to acknowledge himself indebted to any 
source for theories and shooting principles, it is not 
to books, but to the many expert shots who have 
tramped cover and field with him in the course of 
many long shooting days. If the book is anything 
it is practical, and where theories have been ad- 
vanced they have been proved in practice or cast 
aside. 

In writing on this subject the author discovered 
fresh fields and coverts untouched. Since the days 
of Frank Forester, Lewis, and Thos. Alexander 
little has been written of the art of wing shooting 
that merits long life or much consideration. Pigeon 
and trap work have been well handled, and others 
have confined themselves to wild-fowling, but noth- 
ing has been written of a general nature on the 
principles and science of wing shooting. 

Chas. Askins. 

Ames, Oklahoma, August i6th, 1910. 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



The American Shotgun 



CHAPTER I 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON ARMS 
PAST AND PRESENT 

IT has been the custom of writers when treating 
of shotguns to begin at the beginning, tracing 
the evolution of the weapon down from the 
crossbow to the invention of gunpowder, through 
the successive stages of firelock, wheel-lock, arque- 
bus, flintlock, percussion lock, the French Lefeu- 
cheux breech loader, with locking lever under the 
fore-end, the English under grip with lever under 
the guard, the top lever hammer gun with a bolt 
through lugs under the barrels, the extension rib 
gun that was finally bolted through this extension, 
and finally to the most modern hammerless. 

A treatise on oldtime and obsolete weapons is all 
interesting enough to the student of gun develop- 
ment, but everybody cannot be a specialist on this 
subject, many having other business in life. Of 
course where a man has an expert knowledge on any 

17 



1 8 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

subject there is a temptation to display it, but the 
author means to show a consideration for his read- 
ers that will not keep them cracking away at the 
ancient arquebus before getting at the kernel of the 
modern breechloader. 

We can safely ignore the muzzle-loader to-day, 
though not so many years since it was considered a 
weapon good enough for any man. Indeed, the 
hammer breechloader scarcely deserves a mention, 
for their use is steadily becoming restricted to the 
very cheapest output, and It is hardly conceivable 
that anyone would purchase a hammer gun from 
choice though he might continue to carry some old 
favorite which had become endeared through years 
of successful use. 

We might note, in passing, that every improve- 
ment of the gun from its very invention to the pres- 
ent day has been steadily fought by the conserva- 
tive. Military authorities very positively decided 
that the clumsy firelock was inferior as a weapon 
of war to the long bow. Experienced sportsmen of 
their day were outspoken in the belief that the per- 
cussion lock was not so well adapted to heavy loads 
as the flintlock, besides it entailed extra expense 
and trouble in the way of procuring and handling 
caps. The veteran gunner would have none of the 
breechloader when it first appeared, declaring it 
inferior to the muzzle-loader both in pattern and 
penetration, in addition to quickly becoming shaky 
and generally worthless. 



ARMS PAST AND PRESENT 19 

Then the hammerless had a long and hot fight for 
a foothold. It was pronounced a most dangerous 
invention of the devil, this arm that must be car- 
ried around at full cock with even the owner unable 
to perceive whether the hammers were up or down. 

By and by, when extension ribs came, the conser- 
vative gunmakers took a hand, declaring that the 
arm was strong enough and handsomer without the 
useless, ugly extension. To this day a few of the 
old English gunsmiths persist in refusing to build a 
gun with the rib extending into the breech. More- 
over, when these ribs were at last bolted through, 
or wedge-bolted from the rear, this entailed further 
contention, and one of our most popular manufac- 
turers still absolutely refuses to bolt through the 
rib of his gun, though, in the nature of things, he 
will have to yield finally to the demands of his pa- 
trons. 

The latest and strongest models of American 
guns have omitted the bolts through the lugs under 
the barrels, and It Is the belief of the writer that all 
gunmakers will In the end discard them as so much 
useless machinery. A multiplicity of bolts that can 
only accomplish the work of one are not to be de- 
fended upon mechanical grounds, yet one man will 
be slow to see what another observes at a glance. 

Even choke boring had its enemies who main- 
tained that such a system of boring caused stringing 
of the shot, that the missiles crossed and would not 
fly straight, that this style of boring tore up the 



20 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 




(i) Single lug bolt; (2) double fastening, lug bolt, and dolls- 
head extension rib; (3) triple bolted, two lug bolts and rib bolt; 
(4) quadruple fastening, two lug bolts and dollshead extension 
rib with rear wedge bite. 

game at short range and would not pattern closer 
at the long ranges than a cylinder. They asked 
how a gun could be supposed to show an Increased 



ARMS PAST AND PRESENT 21 




(5) Quintuple fastening, double bolts in lugs, extension rib 
with shoulder bearing, and through cross bolt, Purdey sideclips ; 
(6) rotary cross bolt. 

velocity when the charge was jammed and checked 
in its passage through the muzzle. 

Self-ejection has not yet won the position it 
should occupy, many clinging to the extractor be- 
cause it is simple and good enough. Yet it need not 
be doubted that all double guns with any pretense 
to quality will at last be made self-ejecting and the 
arm without this improvement will only be out of 
date the earlier. 

Strangely enough as shotguns have gone on stead- 
ily and even rapidly improving with the march of 
time, they have nevertheless become more reason- 
able in price, grade for grade. The Old Joe Man- 
ton muzzle-loader cost up into the hundreds of dol- 



22 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

lars for a strong, plain gun. A better weapon could 
be purchased to-day for a ten-dollar bill, and at 
the price of the ancient weapon the modern breech- 
loader would be incomparably superior, especially 
in fit, balance, and artistic appearance. The youth 
of to-day fails to appreciate his good fortune in 
being able to purchase a sterling arm at a trifling 
cost. 

I can well remember the first breech-loader that 
I bought myself. I put all the money into it that I 
had and it was supposed to contain all the improve- 
ments that heart could desire. The hammers, when 
down, stood above the frame like mules' ears, but 
the dealer dwelt upon the fact that they were pretty 
well below the line of sight when the piece was 
cocked. The arm had a very well finished stock and 
was line engraved, but it shot to pieces in two years 
and was thereafter constantly on a visit to the gun- 
smith to be tightened up. When the hammerless 
appeared, I laid it aside without regret, though I 
never had a better shooting gun or one that I could 
handle more effectively. 

American gunbuilders have developed more rap- 
idly than other armorers in the matter of construct- 
ing strong, serviceable arms at a moderate cost. 
This is partly due to universal progress in gunbuild- 
ing, partly to replacing the old, costly damascus and 
twist combinations of iron and steel with plain com- 
pressed steel, but it is more the result of ingeniously 
devised machinery which takes the place of laborious 



ARMS PAST AND PRESENT 23 

hand processes. Then, too, our builders have so 
systematized their work that every artisan is not a 
gunsmith, per se, but is an expert at some recognized 
and defined division of the work. One man is an 
adept at putting barrels together; another has a 
national reputation as a barrel borer; while a third 
man may have put in a lifetime in finishing locks 
and bolts. Possibly one mechanic may never have 
touched tool to gun except in finishing gun stocks; 
and indeed the selection of wood in the rough from 
which these stocks are made is a trade of itself. 
And so it goes through every department of the 
work from breech to muzzle. 

The result of a general use of machinery and a 
specialization in mechanics is that guns can be turned 
out at a small percentage of what they once cost, 
the arm at the same time being a stronger and 
better weapon, which would be true even without 
late inventions that bring the piece to the present 
date. 

Another thing that has contributed to the reduc- 
tion in cost of arms to-day, as well as to their sim- 
plicity and sterling merit, is that the patents on dif- 
ferent inventions have run out, thus permitting the 
manufacturer to select what he considers best and 
most available, a locking bolt here, a cocking hook 
there, a coil mainspring the invention of one man, 
and an ejector mechanism that has proved itself by 
strenuous service. In this way better arms are built 
than could ever have resulted from the mechanical 



24 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



genius of any one man. The world is growing 
smaller and man is finding it more and more difficult 
to keep secrets either of trade or war. Meantime 
we who are reaping the benefit have no fault to find. 



CHAPTER II 
CONSTRUCTION OF SHOTGUNS 

IN treating briefly of shotgun construction I shall 
make no pretense of posing as an expert in their 
manufacture. There are many things connected 
with the building of guns about which our manu- 
facturers tall<^ with reluctance, such as the prices paid 
for raw material, wages given to workmen, actual 
cost of turning out a gun of a certain grade, amount 
of hand work placed on any particular arm, and 
other things. All this would be of little value to the 
amateur if known and might possibly embarrass the 
factory owners. My only endeavor here will be 
to give the novice an idea of how guns are con- 
structed sufl'iciently clear to permit him to judge 
with fair accuracy his own arm or any that falls 
under his observation. 

Barrels being a prime factor in gun building, we 
may as well begin with them. 

Barrels 

(Damascus, Twist, Laminated, Compressed Steel.) 

Up to a decade or so ago shotgun barrels were 
made of a combination of iron and steel strips, 

25 



26 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

welded together and then twisted around a mandrel 
of such size as roughly to give the diameter of the 
bore. After being twisted into a spiral tube this 
was hammered or welded into a homogeneous mass. 
These tubes were known as twist, laminated, or 
damascus, depending upon the manner of using the 
steel and iron. The damascus barrels were further 
subdivided into two-stripe, three-stripe, and four- 
stripe damascus, the numerals having reference to 
the number of strips of iron and steel that were 
welded together before being twisted. 

It is an old story that in the original, handforged 
barrels horseshoe nails were used, and it was popu- 
larly believed that they made the strongest and 
toughest barrels. Perhaps such material really en- 
tered into the construction of gun barrels, but it is 
not worth while to attempt either to prove or dis- 
prove the tale now. 

Damascus barrels were in high favor twenty 
years ago. They were very tough and elastic, 
capable of expanding under pressure without dis- 
rupting. The only fault to be found with them is 
that they are soft, denting easily, when struck, against 
another barrel or any hard object. Frequently gun- 
ners injured one another's damascus tubes by jos- 
tling as they walked side by side. 

As compared with modern fluid steel barrels those 
of damascus were also more liable to be injured by 
the gases of nitro powder, and generally they were 
hard to keep free from pits and rust. It is doubt- 



CONSTRUCTION OF SHOTGUNS 27 

ful, too, if they would take as high a degree of 
poHsh as those of our present plain steel. It is the 
belief of the writer that except for the regard of 
the conservative for what was known to be good, 
no damascus or twist barrels would now be in use. 

Compressed Steel 

The plain rolled or drawn steel barrels are known 
to be harder than any heretofore used, thus being 
less liable to accidental injury. They will sustain a 
higher internal or chamber pressure than damascus, 
and are therefore better adapted to nitro powders 
with the occasional high pressure that may be de- 
veloped by handloaded or experimental charges. 
Such tubes will take a higher polish, and can be kept 
free of pits with half the labor occasioned by the 
old combinations of steel and iron. The process of 
manufacture is simpler, and good barrels can be 
turned out at a much reduced cost. The choke of 
a steel barrel can never be shot out and will retain 
its pattern for all time. 

Our manufacturers have various technical names 
to describe their different grades of steel barrels.' 
The Krupp and Whitworth tubes, made In Ger- 
many and England respectively, have perhaps the 
greatest repute. Other grades of steel such as ar- 
mor, nitro, high-pressure, titanic, homo-tensile, vul- 
can, mean nothing to the outsider more than that 
they are known to be placed upon certain grades of 



28 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

weapons by reliable manufacturers. Probably there 
is quite a difference in the pressure that the cheaper 
and the higher grades of compressed steel will sus- 
tain, but In Its finished state the ordinary observ^er 
cannot detect any difference in the appearance of 
the grades as he could with the damascus and thus 
must rely solely upon the manufacturer's word and 
reputation for the quality of his gun barrels. 

While I should have absolute confidence in the 
safety of any barrel placed upon an arm by a reput- 
able manufacturer, yet it is to be regretted that 
builders regard as "trade secrets" the different pres- 
sures that various grades of steel will bear. It 
might be well for a man to know just how close he 
was coming to the danger line In shooting heavy 
loads. 

Some gunmakers advertise their barrels as being 
able to withstand a pressure of one hundred thou- 
sand pounds to the square Inch, but it is difficult to 
understand just what this means. If the barrel 
would bear an inside pressure of a hundred thousand 
pounds, it would. Indeed, be a corker. The ordi- 
nary shotgun charge only develops a pressure of 
from four to six thousand pounds, and the barrel Is 
"proved" In the rough with a pressure of from four 
to five tons. 

In this country we have no government proof 
house such as all European countries possess, and 
hence must rely upon the tubes being privately 
proved by the different manufacturers. 



CONSTRUCTION OF SHOTGUNS 29 

Strangely enough, while we turn out more shot- 
guns than all the remaining world put together, we 
are not and never have been a barrel-making nation. 
Just why this should be true I am unable to state, 
but the majority of our tubes are imported from 
Europe in a rough form and are then put together, 
filed, shaped, and bored in this country. It appears 
only a question of a short time now when America 
will forge her own barrels. The Stevens people 
are now making all the tubes used in their factory, 
and the Winchester and Remington factories those 
adapted to their repeating shotguns. 

The fluid or plain steel barrels are manufactured 
from a solid bar. This is first drilled through and 
then rolled or drawn into length or shape; after 
which it is rough bored into a size some thousandths 
of an inch smaller inside diameter than it will be 
when finished. It is then subjected to its first proof 
test which is expected to develop a pressure some 
three times as high as the tube will be called upon 
to bear with standard loads. This first test is cut 
upon the barrel in the shape of a "proof mark," 
and it is then in shape to be exported. Should the 
barrel be finished in Europe, it will be given a final 
government proof in its finished condition, this 
proof developing double the bursting strain of nor- 
mal charges. 

In this country, having no government proof- 
house, we must rely, first, upon the foreign proof- 
marks, and, second, upon the reliability of our build- 



30 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 




\ 

Stevens compressed steel barrel?. Barix 
one piece 



lug forged in 



ers. The foreign proof mark is practically worth- 
less, for the reason that the barrel is afterwards 
filed down and shaped, and if this is unskilfully done 
a barrel that had ample strength in the rough might 
be so weakened as to become absolutely dangerous. 
Within the past few years I have seen a barrel burst 
that was as thin at the point where it disrupted as 
the paper upon which this is written. It follows 
that our only reliance is upon the integrity of our 
manufacturers, and ordinary precaution would re- 
quire that we purchase an arm only from men who 
have a reputation to jeopardize. 



CONSTRUCTION OF SHOTGUNS 3 1 

It is greatly to our manufacturers' credit that 
their output has always been of such quality that 
there has been little demand for a government 
proofhouse. Doubtless, though, should we ever be- 
come a large exporting nation, which seems prob- 
able, such an institution will have to come. 

Finishing Barrels 

The rough tube as it comes from the maker has 
little resemblance to a finished shotgun barrel. A 
large amount of skilled labor and the services of a 
number of special artisans are required before the 
tube is ready to burn nitro powder and drive shot. 
The barrels must first be filed down and dressed 
into the shape that gives them that elegant taper 
from breech to muzzle, and while cutting away, re- 
ducing weight and shaping them the greatest care 
is taken to do the work scientifically, leaving a thick- 
ness of metal where the greatest strain is to come, 
the w^hole work being accomplished by a man whose 
sole duty or trade is to do that very thing. 

Then another expert puts the barrels together, 
and upon his skill depends the accurate shooting of 
the barrels, that is their shooting to center. I can 
well remember the dismay of a young friend of mine 
who discovered after a year's use of the weapon 
that one barrel shot six inches lower than the other 
at twenty-fiv^e yards. Of course he no longer had 
any confidence in that gun, nor had he any difliculty 



32 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

in accounting for every miss made during all of the 
year. 

Gun Boring and Polishing 

Some of our shotgun borers have international 
reputations, and certainly they have made greater 
advances in their profession than have the artisans 
engaged in any other branch of gun building. It is 
said that the most skilled of these men can regularly 
cut a barrel to a thousandth of an inch at any point 
from breech to muzzle, guaranteeing a pattern with- 
in a very few pellets of that demandeci. Not every 
shotgun barrel is cut alike, indeed every gun-borer 
has a system of his own that will differ at least in 
minor particulars from those of all others, but 
results are practically similar. It is true that nearly 
all the above work is accomplished by machinery, 
but it is machinery that requires very intelligent su- 
pervision. 

When the barrels are bored the polishing process 
begins, and upon the manner In v/hlch this Is ac- 
complished depends the Interior beauty of the tube 
and to some extent its future usefulness and life. A 
highly polished bore is perhaps the best of all guar- 
antees against pitting and rusting. Moreover, this 
polish is strictly necessary in order to guard against 
the piece leading at every discharge. I have seen 
barrels that would begin to lead with the first shot 
and steadily increase the deposits until from a sev- 



CONSTRUCTION OF SHOTGUNS 33 

enty per cent, tube the pattern was reduced to one 
of fifty per cent. Of course faulty ammunition might 
have something to do with this, but it remains that 
some barrels lead much more than others with the 
same ammunition. 

Leading a gun seems to be a necessary evil, not 
to be entirely obviated by the most conscientious 
work. Possibly one system of boring may show bet- 
ter results in this respect than another, though I 
have never yet seen a barrel that would not show 
traces of lead if shot rapidly enough to heat. It is 
a very disagreeable fault, rendering the piece hard 
to clean and causing pits where the tube is neglected, 
as well as reducing the pattern as mentioned. In 
fact, I have yet to see a gun that would maintain 
its seventy per cent, pattern throughout a day's 
shooting. 

Perhaps the cone has as much to do with the 
leading of a barrel as any other feature of the bore. 
The cone is the place where the barrel narrows 
from the shell chamber to its true bore. Should 
this be of faulty shape it may cause the charge to 
upset as it enters the barrel, leaving a deposit of 
lead at the breech. When the shot have jammed 
and leaded in entering the barrel they are in good 
condition to make further deposits; as a conse- 
quence the piece that leads in front of the shell 
chamber will nearly always do so in the choke as 
well. 



34 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



Barrel Fitting 

Our barrels are now fitted to their action, and 
here the work can by no means be slighted without 
betraying its slovenly character even to the novice. 
Barrels perfectly fitted to the frame are suflficient 
evidence that no part of the work of the entire arm 
has been neglected. Where steel and iron come to- 
gether the fitting should be as fine as the edge of the 
sharpest tool, so close that eye can scarcely observe 
the joint. An expert judges the arm from the way 
it is fitted as accurately as a naturalist can pronounce 
upon the character of an animal from its teeth and 
jaw. If the tyro can observe any evidence of im- 
perfect fitting then it is a cheap gun, no matter by 
whom made or at what price. 

Cost of Barrels — Rough and Finished 

Barrels cost in the rough as imported from two 
to twenty-five dollars a pair. When finished and 
adjusted to the frame they range in price from ten 
to two hundred and fifty dollars. Usually our 
builders charge one-half the price of the arm for 
an extra pair of barrels of a grade similar to that 
of the gun. Many of the manufacturers refuse to 
cross their grades by placing cheap barrels upon a 
high grade arm or vice versa. 



CHAPTER III 
THE FRAME 

THE frame of a gun is that part to which the 
barrels are jointed at one end and the stock 
attached to the other. The frame, together 
with the mechanism which it contains, is mechanical- 
ly the most important feature of a double hammer- 
less shotgun. The life of a shotgun, its strength 
and continued soundness, are directly dependent 
upon the bolting mechanism, while the locks must 
be of such temper and quality as to fire thousands 
and thousands of shots without weakening. 

The frame itself is made of a solid block of drop 
forged steel which is then milled out to contain the 
working parts, filed into shape, polished, and case- 
hardened when finished. There are at the present 
time two types of frames in common use, the box- 
lock and the sideplate. These will be treated more 
fully under the heading of locks. I have never 
known the frame of a shotgun to break down, and 
it need only be said of them here that they should 
be as light as possible consistent with strength. A 
heavy frame is a great handicap to a gunbuilder who 

3S 



36 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

is trying to maintain the correct balance of his 
weapons In all weights, since a heavy frame and a 
light, short barrel are sure to result in a butt heavy 
arm. 

Locking Bolts and Fastenings 

In the first models of breechloaders made the 
barrels were locked down on the frame by a bolt 
actuated by a lever under the fore-end. The lever 
swung out to drop the barrels and this model of 
gun was known as the Lefeucheux, a French Inven- 
tion. Then the English improved upon this by 
swinging the lever about under the guard and giving 
it double bites or bolts Into the lug. Subsequently 
the bolt was placed under the standing breech and 
was withdrawn by a side lever. Some of the early 
American arms were made with this side lever. All 
of these models of shotguns are now obsolete and 
need not be dwelt upon here. 

The top lever now came into use of practically 
the same shape as those we now have. When the 
top lever was invented there was but one bolt which 
engaged with a lug under the barrels and was with- 
drawn to the rear. By and by this bolt was made 
to lock into two lugs in place of one and the arm 
was said to be double bolted. 

Use and wear soon betrayed the weakness of 
these underbolted guns. The construction of the 
bolts was such that they could serve but one purpose. 



THE FRAME 37 



that of binding the barrels down to the frame, but 
as at least half of the strain in shooting is in the 
direction of driving the barrels away from the stand- 
ing breech, there was nothing to withstand this ex- 
cept the joint which wore rapidly and the gun be- 
came loose. To guard against this the rib of the 
gun was finally extended to dovetail into the breech 
and was known as the 

Extended Rib 

The original extension rib was termed the doll's- 
head from its shape. It proved a great reinforce- 
ment of the simple underbolts, effectually preventing 
the barrels from springing away from the breech 
so long as the lug bolts did not wear and permit 
the rib to rise in its socket, giving it a play that al- 
lowed the arm to become shaky eventually. I have 
known guns fastened in this way to rattle after two 
years of service. But others remained tight and 
sound a good ten years. It is much a matter of 
quality of steel and the strain to which it is sub- 
jected. However, just as surely as steel grinding 
on steel will wear eventually, so will guns shoot 
loose that are simply fastened by lug bolts and a 
doll's-head extension rib. 

Inventive genius was not content, and a tapered 
or wedge bolt was placed in the rear of this ex- 
tension rib to prevent it from rising. Many guns 
are still constructed with this style of fastening, es- 



38 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

pecially those built in England and on the Conti- 
nent. A further improvement, for such it undoubt- 
edly was, placed a cross-bolt entirely through the 
rib, engaging with the frame on either side. This 
is the famous Greener cross-bolt much liked in Eu- 
rope and adopted in this country by the Remington 
people for their highest grade of guns. It is a very 
efficient bolt, yet not beyond criticism. It is claimed 
that owing to the long bearing of this bolt in the 
frame considerable friction is entailed. This would 
not matter unless sand or rust gets into the action 
when the bolt may stick and require the services of 
a gunsmith to open the piece. In justice It should 
be said that such a contingency happens very seldom, 
and the cross-bolted gun should give general satis- 
faction. 

The latest European addition to the lug bolts and 
the Greener cross-bolt is the Purdey side-clips, a 
projection of the frame to cover the ends of the bar- 
rels, designed to prevent all lateral action. The 
side-clips have never been used on an American arm, 
neither are they very highly regarded over here, 
the bearing of the lugs in the frame and the deep 
extension rib being quite as well adapted to with- 
standing lateral strain. The celebrated Continental, 
quintuple fastening as found on the Daly, Francotte, 
Cashmore, Sauer and other guns, consists of Purdey 
side-clips and Greener cross-bolt, with shoulder 
bearings to the extended rib and double underbolts. 



THE FRAME 



39 



The Rotary Bolt 

It remained for America to have the final word 
in bolting mechanisms. Our clever mechanics early 
discovered that the lug bolts were in the wrong 
position mechanically. The joint of the barrels acts 
as the fulcrum of a lever upon which the barrels 
rest and pry at the bolts. It is easy to understand, 
therefore, that the closer these bolts are to the joint 




Ithaca bolting mechanism 

the more leverage the barrels have and the stronger 
the bolts must be. It takes three times as much 
strength in bolts to withstanci the pressure if they 
are placed an inch from the joint as it would should 
the fastenings be three inches away. This and other 
considerations led American builders to take their 
locking bolts from the lugs and place them in the 
extension rib which is undoubtedly the right position 
for them mechanically. 



40 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

Our manufacturers also wisely concluded that one 
bolt or fastening in the rib was enough provided it 
could be giv^en such strength and bearing as never 
to shoot loose. This fastening was at last found 
in the heavy Smith rotary bolt. This tapered bolt 
rotates and is driven through a square opening in 
the rib with the full strength of a heavy spring. As 
the bearings wear, this spring automatically drives 
the bolt farther in. It is the only locking mechanism 
in the world that is guaranteed never to loosen with 
use, lack of use, or misuse. Experience bears out 
this claim and the writer has no hesitation in saying 
that throughout the world no other locking device 
should be used on a shotgun save the rotary bolt. 
It is now in use on the Smith, Fox, Stevens, Baker, 
and other guns while the Ithaca has adopted the 
same principle in a slightly different form. 

I am persuaded from the experiments of myself 
and others that no great strain is put upon the lock- 
ing bolts of a shotgun by firing it with ordinary 
charges. Taking away all bolts and simply fitting 
the arm with a dolTs-head extension rib, it has been 
discharged while merely holding the barrels in place 
with the hand. The barrels have also been tied 
down with a thread which remained unbroken when 
the piece was fired. 

It is not so much the strain of discharge that final- 
ly loosens a gun as its constant manipulation, the 
opening and shutting, the prying weight of the bar- 
rels against the bolts when the weapon is being car- 



THE FRAME 41 



ried and jostled, the dropping down of the barrels 
with too much force. The steady grinding of steel 
on steel must wear in course of time whatever the 
hardness or quality of the metal, and provision 
should always be made for taking this up mechani- 
cally. The rotary bolt does this automatically and 
with absolute certainty. An English gunsmith said 
when examining a rotary bolted gun that had been 
in use some years: "Why, the piece is loose but you 
can't tell it because of the bolt, you know." The 
rotary bolt is a good thing for the owner of a gun 
but is not calculated to throw much repair business 
into the hands of a gunsmith. 

The Box-Lock and Sideplate Lock 

American shotguns are made with either box or 
sideplate locks. The latter is very much the same 
as the old hammer lock except that the striker is 
placed inside instead of out, and provision must be 
made for the barrels raising the hammers in place of 
by hand. Indeed this lock is a survival of muzzle- 
loading days and, though simplified and improved, is 
not essentially different from those used on the flint- 
lock. 

Many believe that the sideplate gives the arm a 
better and more racy appearance. This can be 
judged from the engravings of the two styles of 
frames. Certainly the plate gives the engraver more 
latitude, and he has no ugly and square lines to deal 



42 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



with. It also permits a lighter frame which is an 
advantage. 

On the other hand, the box-lock admirers contend 
that the plate lacks both the strength and the easy, 
certain manipulation of the box. This is for the 
reason that part of the pieces constituting the plate 
lock are contained in the plate while others are 
fastened to the frame. Should the gun become 
wrenched or the wood swell from exposure to the 
weather the pieces may not come together accurately, 



BOLT 3 




BOLT 2 



BOLT 1 



Sideplate lock 

thus leading to jar-offs or other trouble. A few go 
so far as to contend that every plate lock should be 
fitted with an extra tumbler safety in order to guard 
against the probable jar-off. I believe myself that 
a better cheap gun can be made with a box-lock 
than with plate, but where the weapon is carefully 
constructed I have never known any trouble to occur 
of any kind, neither would I give the matter of a 
box or plate lock a great deal of consideration when 
purchasing a gun of a reliable maker. 



THE FRAME 43 

Certainly the plate lock has one decided advan- 
tage in that it can be taken off for examination, 
cleaning, or repairs very readily, while the other 
form must be taken to a gunsmith. This has been 
given so much consideration by the gunmakers that 
one of them has invented a hand-detachable lock 
for his box-frames. However, good general advice 
to the amateur is to let his locks alone so long as 
they are attending to business. More locks have 
been injured by the novice tinkering with them than 
have ever been hurt by wear or weather. 

When the embryo gunsmith feels like experi- 
menting with his gun locks he had best buy a cheap 
arm for that especial purpose. It may not be any 
more worthless when he gets through than it was 
before, but he will probably find himself in the po- 
sition of the tinker who took an old fashioned clock 
to pieces and never again could find room for all 
the parts. He said it looked just as well as ever 
when he got it together and would have run except 
that it refused to tick. 

In passing, one advantage of the box-lock should 
be noted. It can be and generally is used with a 
coil mainspring in place of the fiat. These coil 
springs are guaranteed to last forever, while such 
guarantee could hardly be given with a flat spring, 
or at least never has been so far as the writer can 
recall. One English gunmaker who uses flat 
springs recommends that an extra pair of locks be 
purchased with every gun (at an extra cost of fifty 



44 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

dollars) so that If one should break another will be 
at hand. To many it might appear good sense to 
buy an unbreakable lock in the first place. The 
ability to use coil springs may ultimately predispose 
people to the exclusive use of a box-lock. Never- 
theless, in fairness, it should be said that the ma- 
jority of well finished guns are shot a lifetime with- 
out the breakage of a spring. 

Cocking Devices 

The hammerless gun is essentially an arm that 
cocks by some device through which the barrels in 
opening lift the hammers. One of the earliest and 
best of cocking mechanisms was that of Anson & 
Deely. It is still in use on some American arms and 
many of those made in Europe. In this mechanism 
levers are pivoted in the front end of the frame 
with one end projecting into the fore-end and the 
other resting under the toe of the hammer. As the 
barrels turn on their joint in opening the forward 
end of the lever is depressed while the other rises, 
carrying the hammer to cock, the whole action being 
performed very smoothly and reliably. This cock- 
ing system has been criticized as being generally used 
with a short frame in order to obtain greater lever- 
age. 

One of our American arms has a modification of 
the Anson & Deely cocking levers. This is a rod 
running straight through the frame from fore-end 



THE FRAME 45 



to hammer. This rod is fitted with a crank at 
either end, so adjusted that while one of the cranks 
is carried down by turning barrels the other rises, 
pushing the hammer to cock. The gun works with- 
out undue force and the parts are unbreakable. 

The Cocking Hook 

A number of our guns use a peculiarly American 
invention in the shape of a cocking hook. This has 
variations in the different makes of arms. The 
Baker raises the hammers by means of a bent arm 
which is pivoted under the standing breech. One 
end of this arm hooks to the barrels and the other 
has a crosspiece which thrusts directly against the 
hammers, pushing them back until caught by the 
sears. The Parker has a hook which actuates a 
slide, pulling the hammers to cock. The work is 
accomplished with as little friction as in any Ameri- 
can arm. 

The most modern cocking device, the simplest 
and what appears to be mechanically the best, con- 
sists of connecting the toe of the hammer directly 
with the lug of the barrel. The hammer is thus 
its own lever, and as the toe rises the striker drops 
back until caught by the sear. No lost motion is 
possible and very little friction is entailed. At 
present it is hard to see wherein this device can be 
improved. The Fox and Ithaca guns are lug-cockers. 



46 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



Safety Bolts — Tumbler Bolts 



When hammerless guns appeared the old guard 
of conservativ^e veterans naturally set up a roar. 
Here was a muley gun that was not only at full 
cock when game was afoot but remained so every 
blessed minute of the time you were afield. It was 
regarded as certainly a dangerous weapon, likely to 
kill somebody at any time. No matter how careful 




Tumbler Safety, Baker Gun. Illustrates also the trigger safety 

bolt 

the gunner might be about accidentally pulling his 
triggers, there was nothing to prevent a jar-off such 
as had happened with hammer guns more than 
once. The assurance of the makers that jar-offs 
were practically impossible and that the arm was 
really safer than the piece with outside hammers 
did not silence the outcry, and only years of use, 



THE FRAME 47 



fully bearing out the claims of the manufacturers, 
at last ended it. 

The absolute safety of the hammerless gun was 
secured by means of two bolts, the safety or trigger 
bolt and the hammer or tumbler bolt. The first 
only was necessary as proved by experience, but 
the latter was needed to silence the kickers. 

The safety bolt is pivoted in the frame in a per- 
pendicular position; the upper end of this lever is 
attached to a slide on top of the tang, just behind 
the top-lever; the lower end comes snug against the 
triggers, absolutely preventing them from moving 
while the bolt covers them. In order to permit the 
triggers to be pulled the top end of this bolt, con- 
nected with the slide, must be pushed forward, 
throwing the other end back off the triggers. This 
bolt, so adjusted, is known as the non-automatic 
safety for the reason that it only bolts the triggers 
when the slide is moved by hand. 

In order to make the trigger bolt automatically 
assume its position over the triggers, a piece was 
fixed in the frame extending from the safety bolt 
to the post of the top-lever. Every time the top-lever 
was turned in opening the arm this bar mechanically 
shoved the safety bolt over the triggers. This is 
called an automatic safety. 

The tumbler safety is a bar that rises directly be- 
tween the strikers and the firing pins. This bar is ac- 
tuated by the triggers; and, unless these are actually 
pulled, it retains its position preventing the hammers 



48 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

from striking the firing pins. It will thus be seen 
that should the hammer be accidentally jarred off 
the tumbler safety would catch it and there could 
be no accidental discharge. It would appear that 
no further safety devices could possibly be neces- 
sary on a gun than the automatic trigger bolt and 
the automatic tumbler bolt. 

However, many regard the tumbler safety as 
really a bit of useless machinery. It has been dem- 
onstrated that with honestly made locks the hammers 
absolutely cannot jar-off while the bolt is on the 
trigger. Experiments have been made of the most 
radical nature to prove this. With triggers that 
pull at the ordinary weight, the arm has been 
dropped on a stone floor repeatedly from an increas- 
ing height until the stock was smashed, and yet the 
hammers refused to jar-off. It has been proved 
that jar-off when it does occur, as in a gun whose 
trigger pull is set too light, comes from the move- 
ment and play of the trigger against the sear. Trig- 
gers are necessarily so fixed as to move easily, and 
a heavy jar like dropping the gun gives even such 
a light piece of iron as the trigger some momentum 
which acts against the sear the same as the pull 
with the finger. Moreover this play and force of 
momentum cannot act if the triggers are solidly 
bolted, though it might were there merely a tumbler 
safety controlled by the movement of the trigger. 

Granted the foregoing is true, if the trigger can 
actually move the tumbler bolt out of the way in 



THE FRAME 49 



the case of a jar, then the tumbler safety Is a useless 
encumbrance, only put there In deference to preju- 
dice or Ignorance. 

In addition, It Is argued that If the trigger Is set 
to pull at three pounds, one half of the weight will 
be used to release the sear from the hammer and 
the other pound and a half to move the tumbler 
safety out of the way, hence the gun Is no safer 
against a jar-off with a trigger pull of three pounds 
and a tumbler safety than It would be with a pound 
and a half pull, exerted entirely against the sear. 
There Is some truth In this, no doubt, for some of 
the force of the trigger pull must be exerted in mov- 
ing the tumbler bolt out of the way, and this de- 
tracts just that much from the strength with which 
the sear engages the hammer. 

Personally I have never been partial to the au- 
tomatic safety, preferring that my gun should only 
be safe when I set it so. In a hot corner, when 
birds are rising in every direction, I wish to shoot 
without the trouble of shoving up the safety every 
time the arm is reloaded. I never yet knew a man 
with an automatic safety who did not lose occasional 
shots from forgetting to shove it up. 

Nevertheless, I believe that where it is to be 
handled by a novice the- piece had better bolt auto- 
matically. Should the bolt cause him to lose occa- 
sional shots he will yet be the gainer through the 
increased security of himself and companions. Be- 
sides should the gun have a very light pull-off it 



50 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

might be wise to have the triggers invariably bolted 
while the shells are being placed in the chambers 
and the barrels snapped down perhaps with great 
force. With the non-automatic safety the triggers 
are rarely bolted while the arm is being reloaded. 

Individuals differ and what might be wise for one 
would not be safe for another. For myself I have 
never yet had a gun jar-off either when being loaded 
or at any other time except when the trigger pull 
was set too light and the recoil of one barrel jarred 
off the lock of the other. No kind of safety could 
guard against this. 



CHAPTER IV 
GUN STOCKS 

PROBABLY no feature of a shotgun, not even 
the finest engraving, is so beautiful or so 
ornamental as an elegant piece of highly 
finished walnut in the stock. Gunmakers grade 
their stocks as carefully as the weapons to 
which they are to be attached. Technically 
the various grades of wood are known as plain 
American walnut, fine American walnut, English 
walnut, selected English walnut, fine English 
walnut, French or Italian walnut, and Circassian 
walnut. Whether these are any more than technical 
terms I am not prepared to say. It seems unrea- 
sonable that there should not be any fine grained 
and figured walnut in America. 

The imported stocks are bought roughly blocked 
out and in this shape are admitted duty free. The 
rough blocks vary in price from one to twenty dol- 
lars, while the finished article may cost anywhere 
from four to fifty dollars. I have seen plain stocks 
of American walnut, turned to shape, ready to be 
cut and fitted to the action, sell for fifty cents each. 

51 



52 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

The plain walnut is certainly what its name im- 
plies. These stocks are usually not built to order 
but are turned out in quantities for the retail dealer. 
Ordinarily they are made entirely by machinery after 
a fixed pattern from which the manufacturer refuses 
to vary. They have the appearance of being turned 
by machinery, soakeci in oil by the thousand, and 
coated with varnish en masse. The varnish lasts 
and keeps the wood looking half way decent until 
the arm is sold and then it begins to wear off in 
patches. A finished stock of this kind coulti proba- 
bly be turned out for a dollar. 

Selected American walnut is a considerable im- 
provement upon the plain. It is darker, better in 
grain, and is generally what the rifleman terms fan- 
cily finished. It is well seasoned, strong, and last- 
ing. When thoroughly oiled, it will retain its hand- 
some appearance through considerable hard use. 
Such stocks are sometimes made to order with ne- 
cessarily some hand work, but the majority are ma- 
chined out to a regular pattern and placed upon 
arms kept in stock. 

Imported English walnut is a stock adopted by 
our best manufacturers for their knockabout or field 
guns. The quality of wood is sound with often a 
very good grain. The stocks of this grade are oil 
finished and hand polished to some extent, thus en- 
abling them to withstand severe service. Many of 
the arms with English walnut stocks are made to 
order with hand checkering, etc. They probably 



GUN STOCKS 53 

cost finished from five to eight dollars and retail at 
from twelve to fifteen. 

P'ine or selected English walnut is the quality of 
wood that we find on guns costing from one to two 
hundred dollars. As a rule such stocks are made 
to order only, and of any length, shape, drop, or 
measurement that the purchaser desires. Much of 
the finishing is by hand, and they are filed, papered, 
oiled, and rubbed until the grain of wood shows 
handsomely. A rag and a bit of polishing will al- 
ways bring out the beauty of these stocks even after 
years of service. 

French or Italian walnut is generally very dark 
wood which is finished in its natural grain without 
being stained to color or discolor it. These stocks 
are hand finished by a long and careful process, very 
similar to that applied to Circassian walnut which 
will be described. Italian walnut stocks are made 
to order at a cost of from thirty-five to fifty dollars, 
and are to be found upon guns valued at two hun- 
dred dollars or more. 

The finest selected Circassian walnut stocks are 
the pride of the gunbuilder's heart. He goes over 
his best wood with the greatest care to find a piece 
which he can grade as the finest selected Circassian 
walnut. After turning a number of those he likes 
into shape he again culls them for the one with the 
choicest grain. 

The wood of this is subject to a repeated process 
of wetting and drying to bring out the grain which 



54 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

is then papered down until it becomes as smooth 
as it is possible to make it. Oil is then applied and 
rubbed in again and again until the wood will hold 
no more. No varnishing follows and the result is 
a dull though beautiful oil finish. The amount of 
hand work that goes into the manufacture of one 
of these stocks is greater than that required to 
build an entire gun of the medium grades; in fact, 
the oiling and rubbing such a stock receives is ap- 
parently unlimited. The result justifies the means 
for no more elegant piece of wood can be found 
anywhere than an artistically finished gun stock. 

The frame and grip woodcutting is not that of 
an artisan but an artist. Such stocks, and the re- 
mainder of the arm in keeping, rank in artistic qual- 
ity with the paintings of a master of the brush — of 
the two, well, give me the gun. The majority of 
manufacturers will refuse to place these stocks upon 
any except weapons of the highest grade, no matter 
what the Inducement. 

Fore-end 

The fore-end of a shotgun serves three purposes. 
It affords a hold for the forward hand which would 
otherwise come in contact with the hot barrel; It 
serves to bind the barrels to the frame at the joint; 
and It contains the mechanism of the ejector. 

In the earlier makes of breechloading arms I have 
known the fore-ends to loosen and shake or even 



GUN STOCKS 



55 



lose off, but this so rarely happens to-day, whatever 
the age or service of the gun, that little thought 
need be given to the fastening of the fore-end. In 
some American arms the Deely & Edge fore-end 
fastener is used. Others have adopted what is 
known as the snap-fore-end, a heavy straight spring 
which passes the point of greatest tension in clamp- 
ing on and goes home with a snap. It maintains 
a continuous pressure against the joint and at that 
point would take up all wear automatically. A ball 
and socket fastening is also a good one. 




The snap hire-cnd 

When the fore-end needs to bear some of the 
strain of cocking the gun as in the Anson & Deely 
system or the Smith, it should be firmly fixed, but 
this has been so well accomplished by the manufac- 
turers that it is hardly worth while for anybody to 
go into It except the student of gunbuilding. 



The Self Ejector 

Self-ejectors are of such positive advantage to 
the sportsman afield that it is a matter of wonder 
any shotgun of good or medium grade should ever 
be made without them. It is very rare indeed for 
any gunner to shoot a single day without being 



56 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

placed at a disadvantage and missing shots or 
game should he lack ejecting locks. 

A bevy of quail gets up in succession and the 
shooter works so rapidly in pulling out and replac- 
ing the empty shells that he becomes rattled 
and takes an impossible chance where he might have 
made an easy kill had the arm assisted him by 
throwing out the spent cases. Many of us have 
seen the wild ducks come stringing over the blind. 
Perhaps the first one is at long range and a miss 
is scored; then while the gunner is fumbling to get 
out his empty shells a bunch of mallards will fairly 
fan him as they go by his head. He tries a shot 
after it is too late and then the process is to be re- 
peated again. The repeater and the automatic owe 
their popularity in a great measure to the fact that 
so many of our sporting ciouble guns are built non- 
ejecting. 

Possibly trapshooters have had something to do 
with the slow development of ejectors on American 
guns. He can fire at most not more than two suc- 
cessive shots and then has ample time to reload, so 
of course does not require an ejector. The young 
sportsman is very liable to follow the example of 
these veteran professionals, and since they have no 
ejectors neither does he wish any. 

Old time gunners, too, who have become set in 
their ways, have done something toward retarding 
the popularity of this as well as of every other in- 



58 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

vention that did not make its appearance when they 
were of an impressionable age. They decry the 
ejector as being a complex piece of machinery and 
liable to break down, as making the gun harder to 
work, and so on. 

The self-ejecting mechanism can be described as 
simply a miniature gun lock, placed in the fore- 
end and striking against the extractor stem in place 
of the primer. The pulling of the trigger of the 
real lock may be said to pull the trigger of the 
miniature lock also, when it is ready to act as 
soon as the arm is opened sufficiently. There is no 
more reason for this ejector lock breaking down 
than the one in the frame for they are made on 
similar principles and just as strong. 

Ejectors are cocked by the extractor stem pushing 
against the ejector hammer as the barrels are going 
back into place. In one of the simplest and best 
forms with which I am acquainted there are five 
pieces, the striker, mainspring, sear, latch, and push 
rod. When the gun is closed the ejector hammer 
engages with the latch and remains at cock until the 
arm is discharged, when the pushrod drives out the 
latch and replaces it with a sear that trips as the 
barrels rise. 

A high class English gun is similar in movement 
except that the true sear engages with the hammer 
of the ejector and holds it in position until the 
action of the main lock drives out a trip in the end 



GUN STOCKS 59 

of the frame which catches the sear and springs the 
lock as the barrels turn on the joint. 

These arms have the correct mechanical princi- 
ples for ejecting spent shells, and other makes will 
differ from them only in minor particidars. Some 
few guns are built with ejectors that exert a con- 
tinual pressure against the extractor rod; the sear 
in this action is only driven into the notch of the 
ejector hammer when the barrel is fired, retaining 
the hammer at cock until tripped by the barrel as 
usual. This model works well enough but is wrong 
in that the barrels must be closed against the pres- 
sure of the ejector spring whether the arm has been 
fired or not. 

A well liked European arm has ejectors that act 
as usual or may be locked back, whereupon the arm 
extracts its shells the same as a non-ejector gun. 

In all self-ejecting weapons the cartridges are re- 
moved the usual distance in the ordinary way, that 
is by a pin in the frame pushing against the extrac- 
tor as the barrels are dropped. It follows that 
should the ejector mechanism fail to work the shells 
could be extracted by hand exactly as in a gun with- 
out ejectors. However, ejectors of a reliable make 
do not fail to act. 

The simpler the form of ejector of course the 
better, if it does its work without lost motion and 
without friction. I should be inclined to judge an 
ejector mechanism more by the strain it puts upon 



6o THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

the gun and Its owner than any other way. One 
gun works so smoothly that you are hardly aware 
it has ejector locks while another may keep you 
emphatically reminded. 

Our ejectors are now being built with both flat 
and coil springs, and while both are behaving satis- 
factorily, a critical judge might be disposed to fav^or 
the coil, for the reason that it is best adapted to 
bearing a constant compression. In addition the 
striker of the coil spring with its direct push oc- 
cupies less room than the flat with its hammer mov- 
ing in the segment of a circle; this is a matter of 
importance in view of the necessarily limited space 
in the fore-end. Nearly all American guns use coil 
springs in the ejector even though the main locks 
have flat. 



CHAPTER V 

TRIGGERS AND TRIGGER PULL AND THE 
SINGLE TRIGGER 

THE trigger of a gun might be said to be the 
means of communication between the brain 
of the marksman and the charge in his 
weapon. If the communication is faulty, the 
brain's work is wasted. The brain would find it 
useless to give quick and sharp commands 
to a slow serv^ant. The eye, the brain, the 
finger, the trigger, and the charge make a team 
in which, if one member balks, the efforts of 
the others are misspent. It follows that if every- 
thing else about a gun is right, including the man 
behind it, and the trigger pull is wrong the com- 
bination is no better than a steel chain with a 
wooden link. 

The technical term trigger pull means the weight 
that must be attached to the trigger in order to re- 
lease the sear from the hammer notch. In arms 
built to order the manufacturers are always willing 
to adjust the pull, within limits, to suit the wishes 
of the purchaser. On guns placed in stock the 

6i 



62 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

weight of pull is placed at what would please the 
average man or perhaps a trifle harder on the 
ground of safety. 

The trigger pull on a shotgun for a normal man 
should be from three to five pounds. It should vary 
somewhat according to the temperament of the 
shooter, and the weight of the arm governs it in a 
minor degree. A man of quick action and nervous 
temperament will find it wise to have his pull ad- 
justed a bit hard, and a heavy weapon that needs a 
strong grip to handle and swing requires a heavier 
weight of trigger pull than will a light piece. Field 
gunners, who shoot from all positions, sometimes 
twisting and cramping the shooting arm or strain- 
ing the finger to reach the trigger, will need a pull 
from one half to a pound heavier than the trapshot. 

Trigger-pulls may reasonably vary from three to 
five or even six pounds, but If the trigger is lighter 
than three pounds it may become a source of danger 
to others through a premature let-off as well as a 
fruitful cause of poor marksmanship. There are al- 
ways moments of excitement in the field when the 
gunner is liable to discharge his piece without being 
In the least conscious of having pressed the trigger; 
especially Is this true In the case of a novice where 
the trigger pull is too light. The greater the experi- 
ence of the sportsman the more sensitive he becomes 
to the weight of his trigger, and in such hands the 
pull might well be adjusted to the minimum weight. 
The tyro must not pattern after the veteran, how- 



TRIGGERS 63 



ever, in this respect or he will find himself in trouble 
and everybody else that goes afield with him. It 
doesn't matter how naturally sensitive the touch is 
either; I have known ladies with the most delicate 
hands to give a four pound yank on the trigger with- 
out even knowing it was there. 

There are exceptions to all rules and this applies 
to the pull of triggers. A shooting companion of 
mine used a gun with a trigger pull of scant two 
pounds, and another pulled eight pounds on his 
first barrel and ten on the second — and he was a 
good shot too. Nevertheless, it would not do for 
the average man to follow the example of either 
of these. 

Heavy trigger pulls, from five pounds up, are 
generally found on cheap guns. In these the ham- 
mer and sear are made of a soft quality of steel 
and it is needful that a deep notch be cut in the 
hammer to allow for wear. Such arms gradually 
change the pull-off with use until the hammer will 
no longer stand cocked. 

Not only do the cheap and nasty weapons have 
a heavy pull but what is worse it varies, at one time 
yielding with a pressure of seven pounds and at 
another of five. It has been estimated that it re- 
quires a quick man to press his trigger in a hun- 
dredth part of a second after his brain has given the 
order, and if it doesn't yield within a thirtieth of a 
second the result is a certain miss. This is scientifi- 
cally explained on the ground that if a bird is flying 



64 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

sixty feet a second he will cover two feet in the 
thirtieth of a second and be entirely outside of the 
shot pattern. This is especially true of the snapshot 
who must get off at exactly the right instant or miss, 
while the swinging shot who carries his piece along 
with the bird might still have a chance of connect- 
ing. 

The hard pull and the variable pull are bad 
enough, but the creeping or dragging pull is fatal in 
wing-shooting. In the drag pull the shooter presses 
the trigger and feels it yield, but the sear after 
partly releasing still maintains its hold on the ham- 
mer and a second pull is necessary — the trigger con- 
tinues to creep and finally lets go unexpectedly. Skill 
and practice are all wasted with such a trigger, and 
the arm is only fit to shoot rabbits in their form or 
quail huddled on the ground. 

Moreover a trigger should yield sharply if ac- 
curate work is to be accomplished. If the trigger 
moves a great distance in the let-off it will affect the 
grip of the hand and disarrange the aim, probably 
jerking the muzzle down. All of these features of 
a bad trigger pull contribute to those inexplicable 
misses that all of us have experienced. 

Many prefer that the rear trigger should pull a 
trifle heavier, say half a pound, than the front trig- 
ger. This is for the reason that the back trigger 
is in the best position to be given a natural pressure 
with the grip of the hand, while the forward trigger 



TRIGGERS 6s 



strains the finder more and is not pulled In precisely 
the same direction. 

The principles that govern trigger pull are: Too 
light a pull causes premature let-off and tends to 
shooting low and behind. Too heavy a pull means 
shooting ahead on a swinging shot and above in a 
snapshot. A pull with weight enough to impress 
the gunner as being hard is fatal to regular time 
and accuracy. A creeping pull renders the arm 
worthless. It is better for the novice to err on the 
safe side by being sure that his pull is heavy enough; 
later it can be eased without trouble by any gun- 
smith. Do not expect a good trigger pull on a 
cheap arm. 

The Single Trigger 

A single trigger is a contrivance by which both 
barrels of a double gun are pulled by one trigger 
which is usually placed in the rear position. Mecha- 
nisms vary in the different models of one triggers, 
and any of them are too complicated to be accurate- 
ly described v^^lthout the use of diagrams and cuts 
or an actual inspection of the parts. It must suffice 
here to notice their principles briefly. 

In the single trigger there is a slide or bridge 
which, w'hen one trigger is pulled, moves across and 
engages the sear of the opposite lock permitting 
the gunner to let it off with a second pull. This 



66 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 




The Hunter single trigger 

movable bridge can be set by a slide so as to pull 
either barrel first at the will of the shooter. If it 
is intended to use the right barrel first, the bridge 
is set for right, and that barrel will go every time 
it is cocked, the slide only moving over to the left 
when the first hammer is down. Should the bridge 
be moved to the left sear it shoots that barrel first 
so long as permitted to remain in that position. 

The advantages of the one trigger are that you 
can use heavy gloves without being balked by having 
two triggers in the way. The pulling is more uni- 
form and the grip fits the hand better, for it is not 
to be disputed that the grip and direction of the 
pull for double triggers are not the same, and if 
one trigger suits the hand the other will not. More- 
over, the balance and fit of the arm are not disturbed 



TRIGGERS 



67 



as they are in a two trigger gun where the grip must 
be released and shifted up or down for the right and 
left barrels. The shifting of the grip tends to alter 
the length of stock also as will be mentioned in gun- 
fitting and measurements. The rear position for a 
trigger is the only correct one, moreover, since it 
gives a firmer grip, does not strain the hand, and 
enables the pressure to be applied in the most natural 
manner. 

Other advantages are claimed for the one trigger, 
such as much greater rapidity in the use of the sec- 




The Infallible single trigger 

ond barrel, even to the extent of getting onto a bird 
moving at the rate of sixty feet a second fifteen 
feet quicker with the second shot than with a two 
trigger gun. The experience of the author, who has 
used a single trigger gun three years steadily, does 
not bear this out, though it would appear a most 



68 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

reasonable claim to the inexperienced. Indeed, if a 
gain of fifteen feet were made over the double 
trigger the second barrel would have to go instan- 
taneously, because a quick shot with two triggers, 
who continues his swing after the bird, can just- about 
catch it again in fifteen feet or a quarter of a second. 

My own conclusion is that the single trigger in 
the case of a heavily charged twelve bore gun is no 
quicker than the double triggers. The recoil of the 
arm is such that the muzzle is thrown well off the 
target despite the firmest holding, and while the 
gunner is getting on again he can readily shift from 
one trigger to the other. 

Doubtless this claim of greater rapidity might be 
borne out if the mechanism were placed upon small 
bores with very light charges, for it is quite true 
that without loads in the barrels the two locks can 
be sprung much more rapidly with a single trigger 
than with two. In calculating the possibilities of 
rapid firing, recoil, the action of the shooter's mind, 
and the need of a second aim must not be over- 
looked. 

I have every faith in the single trigger, believing 
it a positive advantage and pleasure to use even in 
its present stage of development. Nevertheless the 
conviction is forced upon me that no single trigger 
now invented is perfect, neither will any of them 
quite bear out the claims of the manufacturer. The 
problems incident to the construction of such a trig- 
ger are complex and rendered more so by the differ- 



TRIGGERS 69 



ence in men and their style of shooting. I knew 
one man who nearly always let off two shots from 
his automatic when he intended to fire but one. 

The theory on which the single trigger is made 
is this: When the first barrel is pulled the recoil of 
the weapon shakes loose the grip, the trigger springs 
forward, and the sliding bridge moves across to 
engage the second lock which can then be fired also. 
Now should some gunner occasionally have such a 
firm grip on the stock that the trigger could not 
spring forward, he will be balked when attempting 
the second shot. I have shot with one man who had 
this happen frequently, and that with a trigger which 
is advertised as being impossible to balk. 

There is no one trigger that cannot be balked by 
some men, though in order to prevent this the in- 
ventor of one such action constructed a trigger that 
only needed to move forward the thirty-second of 
an inch to engage the second sear. It is obvious 
that carrying this scheme to a legitimate conclusion 
would mean a trigger that did not have to move 
forward at all to engage the second sear; then we 
would have an action that would really be impossi- 
ble to balk. But it could double discharge with the 
greatest ease and certainty, and it would. Even 
with the trigger springing forward a short distance 
doubles may occur from the rebound of the piece 
after it strikes the shoulder. 

Doubles are worse than being balked, too, as any 
one will admit who will try the experiment of firing 



70 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

six drams of powder and two and a half ounces of 
shot from a seven pound gun. For this reason I 
should prefer a trigger that returned quite to its 
original position before engaging with the second 
sear. 

It must not be concluded that doubles and balking 
with one triggers are a common occurrence, for 
with some men they never happen and with others 
rarely, but the point that I wish to make is that 
they are not impossible, and any advertisement so 
stating is misleading. It has been estimated that in 
doubles with a single trigger the second shot may 
follow the first in one-fiftieth of a second, practically 
both barrels going off as one so that only one report 
is heard. How this can happen with such rapidity 
the writer can only conjecture unless the movable 
bridge in springing across touches and springs the 
sensitive sear of the opposite lock. I am not trying 
to indict the single trigger, but only pointing out 
the mechanical difficulties of making it perfect. 

The one trigger has other defects which I think 
can readily be remedied. One of these relates to 
the instantaneous choice of barrels. The builders 
declare that a choice of barrels can be made in- 
stantly, that is with the same quickness that a man 
would take his finger from the front trigger of his 
open barrel and place it on the trigger of his choked 
barrel when a bird sprang up at long range. 

This means that the change would have to be 
made as the butt slammed to the shoulder and with- 



TRIGGERS 71 



out interfering with that motion. This could be 
done provided the change could be made mechani- 
cally as in pushing up the safety slide on top of the 
tang, the time required not being more than one- 
fifth of a second. However, such one triggers as we 
now have shift with a tiny button under the frame 
where it is hard to move and difficult to get at, ne- 
cessitating the gunner's taking his eye and mind off 
the game and then requiring at least ten seconds to 
make the change. Imagine where a swift-flying bird 
would be that got up at long range and was given 
a handicap of ten seconds. 

There are three positions where the shift might 
be worked with sufficient rapidity, one, the present 
position of the safety slide on top of the tang where 
it could be moved by the thumb as the piece came 
up, second, in the position of the Greener safety, 
and, third, in the shape of a trigger just inside the 
front end of the guard where it could be moved for- 
ward by the back of the forefinger as the gun came 
up. 

The author is having a single trigger gun built in 
which the ordinary trigger safety bolt has been 
omitted and replaced with a selective slide that will 
change barrels as quickly as you could shove up the 
safety on an ordinary hammerless gun. With the 
present models of one triggers there can be no se- 
lection except from deliberate calculation as to what 
kind of shot you are to expect next. 

The single trigger sometimes causes the loss of 



72 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

a shot, too, In this way: The first barrel has been 
fired scoring a kill, and as usual the sportsman at 
once breaks his gun to replace the empty shell. When 
he has withdrawn or ejected the empty shell and 
before he can replace it with a load, another bird 
breaks out. With a two trigger gun the hunter 
would at once snap down the barrels and fire the 
one that was still filled, but should he attempt this 
with a single trigger the first lock will go again with 
a useless click and the opportunity is gone. Doubt- 
less long use of the single trigger would cause the 
sportsman to make the first futile pull as his piece 
came up, but most men are accustomed to the dis- 
charge of the arm when the trigger is pulled and 
their first thought is that the shell has missed fire. 
Despite the minor drawbacks enumerated and the 
opinion that no single trigger now in use is perfect 
or past improving, I should, nevertheless, much 
prefer It to a double trigger and would not willingly 
go back to the latter. The one trigger Is following 
in the footsteps of the hammerless action, the self- 
ejector, and other improvements that in the nature 
of things are bound to come. Meantime we can 
await with confidence the American single trigger 
that will finally replace all the others. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE MATTER OF ENGRAVING 

ENGRAVING is placed upon a gun purely 
as an ornament to satisfy the esthetic taste 
of the sportsman. It adds not one 
iota to the soundness of the arm, its shooting quali- 
ties, ease of manipulation, fit, or balance. It is a 
luxury on a footing with our preference for broad- 
cloth in place of jeans, silver knives and chinaware 
where steel and tin platters would do as 
well, pictures upon the wall, that without them 
would afford us as much shelter and creature com- 
fort. The civilized man has developed a taste for 
the beautiful, otherwise he would not be civilized, 
and while he could return to barbarous ways and 
still exist, why should he? 

The engraving upon a shotgun costs from five 
dollars to two hundred and fifty. The plainest 
style of engraving and the cheapest is known as line 
engraving. It consists of a simple line about the 
borders of the locks and frame with a bit of etching 
around the screw heads. The next higher grade 
would comprise some scrolls cut into the locks and 

73 








74 



ENGRAVING 75 



possibly the outline of a bird. Then we have scroll 
engraving, scroll engraving in relief, scroll work in- 
laid with gold, picture and game engraving surround- 
ed with scroll as a frame, and picture engraving to 
individual order. 

Tastes differ in the ornamentation of guns. One 
man prefers a wealth of ornamentation, another is 
pleased with the simplest style, while others may like 
none at all. Gunmakers are partial to different de- 
signs also, one being noted for handsome scroll work 
in relief, and another for the artistic spirit displayed 
in his game scenes. 

Engraving upon respectable arms is supposed to 
be done by hand. If this is true the average gun- 
builder makes a mere machine out of his artists, 
for gun after gun is cut exactly alike to the line. 
Neither will the manufacturer vary his design to 
order. Should you purchase a hundred dollar grade 
gun it will have just so much engraving upon it, 
and there will be ten thousand more cut like it to 
the last dot. 

I knew an army officer who ordered a high priced 
arm of one of our builders; he wished it left as plain 
in locks and frame as one of his army rifles, but 
could not secure what he desired and was obliged to 
accept the usual engraving that went with the grade. 
Just why this should have been the case is something 
for the manufacturers to explain. 

A word of advice might be given to our gunmak- 
ers here at which they should take no offense. We 



76 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

are noted for the excellence of our sound, well bal- 
anced arms In the cheaper and medium grades, but 
many hesitate to purchase the finer weapons because 
they do not believe they are getting value in orna- 
mentation and appearance. The gentleman of means 
who buys a high grade gun feels a trifle as did the 
man who would only drink coffee that cost fifty 
cents a pound. The country merchant had no grade 
of the berry higher priced than twenty-five cents, but 
it was either fifty cents or no sale so he sold — one 
pound. 

I may not be forgiven for here venturing to criti- 
cize the scroll engravings so popular In this and 
other countries, but In plain truth I consider it noth- 
ing more nor less than ornamental penmanship 
transferred to the frame of a gun. It consists of a 
lot of curved lines, beautiful in themselves, perhaps, 
but senseless and meaningless as a whole or as a 
composition. I am no better satisfied with orna- 
mental penmanship on my gun than I would be to 
have such flourishes take the place of my paintings 
which tell a story with life and fire and beauty. A 
certain amount of scroll is all right as a relief to the 
plain steel, as a setting to a picture, but other things 
being equal I should prefer the simple scrolls that 
are placed upon the medium guns to the elaborate 
curls and curleycues with which the steel Is so thor- 
oughly scratched on our fine guns. I fancy there 
are others who feel just as I do about this and hence 



S f^ 




77 



78 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

the reluctance to pay good money for engraving 
or to buy the higher grades of weapons. 

The man who is wiHing to pay for it should have 
his tastes consulted in the engraving of his gun. If 
he has a preference for scroll engraving, all well 
and good, but if he desires pictures on his piece 
in keeping with the use to which the arm is to be 
devoted, then he should have them. Above all he 
is entitled to have his weapon an individual arm in 
appearance and ornamentation and not an exact 
duplicate of a thousand others. The builder of one 
of the most popular imported guns recognizes this, 
and every one of his higher grade guns is engraved 
with a distinct design of its own. 

Not only is this desirable, but the purchaser should 
be consulted with regard to what he wishes repro- 
duced. I should prefer an old hawk, sitting on the 
dead limb of a tree, a bevy of quail roosting in the 
grass, a mallard dropping into the marsh, the head 
of a favorite setter, to all the flourishes that could 
be cut into the steel. I regard gold inlaying, gold 
plating, gold triggers, etc., as on a par with nickel 
plating the barrels and would as soon have one as 
the other. 

In the matter of ornamentation it seems that we 
will be obliged, willy nilly, to take what the man- 
ufacturers give us. Moreover we have no distinc- 
tive style of engraving in this country but have 
copied after England. If you are satisfied with the 
English style of gun engraving it can be obtained 



ENGRAVING 79 



just as perfectly here. But the writer Is forced re- 
luctantly to admit that Continental gun engravers, 
in his humble opinion, are more artistic than either 
those of England or America. The sole excuse that 
an American could have for preferring an arm built 
in Germany, France, or Belgium is that the orna- 
mentation is more to his liking. He pays well for 
this, and sacrifices something in sterling lasting and 
wearing qualities, but if the appearance of the piece 
gives him the most pleasure he is entitled to gratify 
his own tastes. It only remains for our builders to 
meet the demand for arms that are ornamented 
by artists rather than mechanics. 

American and Foreign Shotguns Compared 

Prejudice and local pride are likely to make any 
American, other than an Anglo-maniac, a biased 
judge when it comes to comparing our arms with 
those made in Europe. I make no denial of having 
a preference for home built weapons, yet I shall at- 
tempt to treat all as fairly as I may. 

In the first place it is not to be expected that there 
will be any wonderful difference in the output of 
the various countries. The same barrels are in 
common use, the systems of boring are alike in prac- 
tical results, the stocks are the same and the quality 
of steel, while the constructive machinery differs lit- 
tle. It follows that weapons can diverge only in 
minor particulars, such as locks and bolts, cocking 



8o 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



mechanism, and finish. It would not be worth while 
to dwell upon features that are common to all, so I 
will confine myself to pointing out briefly wherein 
they differ. 

Any close observer would be quick to note that 
the frames of nearly all American arms are longer 
and heavier than those built across the water. These 
long frames are a very positive advantage when 




The Diamond Daly ; beautiful German style of engraving 

considering strength alone, for a gun with long 
frame must outlast the one with short frame, other 
things being equal. This is for the reason that 
there will be less leverage against the locking bolts. 
It is true, however, that this rule works both ways, 
and if a short framed gun gives more leverage 
against its fastenings, it also exerts greater lever 
power in cocking both the main lock and the ejec- 



ENGRAVING 8i 



tor. The increased leverage in the short-framed gun 
comes from giving the locks a shorter end of the 
lever and because the barrels turn farther on the 
joint in opening the gun. If need be, this point could 
be absolutely proved by lengthening the frame to 
such an extent that the piece could not be cocked by 
hand at all in the usual way. It follows that while 
American arms are the strongest, as a rule they 
function harder than those made in Europe. Of 
course there might be exceptions but this is the rule; 
what we gain in strength we lose in ease of manipu- 
lation. 

In locking bolts and fastenings I am glad to vote 
the American ticket straight. As noted, our long 
frames give us the advantage in the first place, and 
besides our weapons are mechanically superior in 
this respect. England and the Continent have tend- 
ed steadily to multiplicity of fastenings, America to 
simplicity. While they have developed a quintuple 
locking action we have invented a single rotary bolt 
that is emphatically stronger than all of their five. 
Locking bolts, length of frames, and cocking mecha- 
nisms constitute the only really essential differences 
between American and foreign arms, and in these 
assuredly America scores. I am not considering the 
cheap output of Europe, for with such arms we have 
nothing worthless enough to compare. 

Engraving has been sufl'iciently treated. I can 
only repeat here that England and America have 



82 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

practically the same style of gun ornamentation, in 
which they are excelled by both Germany and 
France. 

In weights of arms there is perhaps a greater 
variation in those of Europe. They build lighter 
arms than we find serviceable and also construct 
weapons for heavier charges than any listed by our 
ammunition houses. 

The English game gun is a very light arm, weigh- 
ing in twelve gauge from 5^ to 6^4 pounds. It is 
used with reduced charges upon driven and hand 
raised game. We have never found featherweights 
adapted to American shooting though they became a 
short lived fad a few years since. The English 
pigeon gun, balancing at from seven to eight pounds, 
is practically the same as our all-service arm. The 
European wildfowl gun with its heavy charge has 
had but a limited demand in this country since the 
ten bore went out of fashion. All nations are alike 
devoting a good deal of consideration to the small 
bores at the present time; neither do the dimensions 
of the narrow gauges vary greatly whether made in 
America or Europe. 

It is probable that the cost of building a shotgun 
in this country and Europe is about the same. Doubt- 
less their handworkmen receive a trifle less wages 
than ours, but on the other hand our gunmaking 
machinery is better and we have more of it. 

Every imported arm pays an import duty amount- 
ing to about one-third of its value which must be 



ENGRAVING 83 



added to the cost of the arm. It follows that we 
should expect an American arm costing one hundred 
dollars to be of like value with a foreign gun at one 
hundred and fifty; a three hundred dollar European 
piece grading with ours at two hundred. These fig- 
ures will apply approximately to weapons of all 
grades. The conclusion is logical that where the 
sportsman has but a limited amount of money to be 
placed in his weapon he will do well to purchase 
from a home builder. Where money is not a con- 
sideration an elegant arm can be obtained either at 
home or abroad. 



CHAPTER VII 
GRADES AND PRICES 

IN writing of the grades and prices of guns 
I shall refer to the retail selling price rather 
than to the list price since the latter is such an 
uncertain quantity. The net price of one gun may 
be nearly the same as its list price while another will 
be sold at forty per cent, below list. Trade require- 
ments necessitate list and net prices no doubt, but 
they are very confusing when mentioning the price 
of a gun. 

Though American shotguns are graded at from 
fifteen to one thousand dollars, yet strangely 
enough, from the highest to the lowest, there is little 
difference in their shooting qualities. At one period 
in the manufacture of firearms only the higher 
priced weapons could be guaranteed to make first 
rate patterns, but gunboring has become such an 
exact science that the cheapest arms may equal in 
pattern and penetration those of the highest grade. 
The old stories of testing some high priced arm 
and finding that it would kill at extreme ranges are 
therefore antiquated, because the moderate priced 

84 



GRADES AND PRICES 8<; 

arm is just as liable to do the same thing. Never- 
theless every grade from the lowest to five hundred 
dollars or more gives value in proportion to price, 
and I shall here endeavor to point out wherein one 
gun may excel another though all should shoot 
alike. 

The fact that nearly all shotguns perform alike 
with their charges has had a rather unfortunate ef- 
fect on gun building in this country. The practical 
man, knowing that he can procure as good a shoot- 
ing arm as there is made at from twenty-five to fifty 
dollars, cannot persuade himself that there is any- 
thing sensible in going beyond those figures. This 
feeling has undoubtedly caused large demand for 
the cheaper class, preventing any, even of our best 
manufacturers, from making a specialty of high 
grade weapons. 

In England and upon the Continent there are 
gunmakers who do make a specialty of the best 
grades, never sending a cheap gun at least to this 
country, and this has created the impression that 
our manufacturers cannot compete with the foreign- 
ers in the finer class of weapons. This conclusion is 
entirely without foundation in fact. I am convinced 
that it is well worth while for any man who can af- 
ford it to buy only the better grade of American 
arms, not only because he purchases other things in 
keeping from his beefsteak to his automobile, but for 
the sake of the general improvement in gunbuilding 
which such a course would foster, and for his own 



86 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

satisfaction and the due pride a sportsman should 
take in his weapon. 

The Cheapest Grade 

The cheapest double hammerless gun that I have 
been able to discover in the catalogs is sold at 
$13.85. Such arms are not made for hard usage, 
but for the farmer, for the man who wishes to have 
some kind of a firearm in the house because he might 
need it some time. Mechanically these guns are at 
least fairly good, embodying as they do features that 
were thoroughly tried out by the makers of standard 
arms. Necessarily such pieces are made heavy and 
clumsy, since in order to work up the steel at a mini- 
mum of cost it must be soft, and the barrels and 
action must be heavy in consequence to withstand 
ordinary charges. It need hardly be said that such 
arms are made entirely by machinery, with barrels 
and stocks of the cheapest description. As nearly 
as I can learn the stock of such an arm costs fifty 
cents, the barrels about a dollar and fifty, and the 
whole gun might be constructed for five dollars. No 
attempt can be made to give such a piece fit or bal- 
ance, but the secret of their cheapness lies in the 
inferior quality of material employed throughout. 

The Twenty Dollar Field Grade 

At twenty dollars some of our more reliable 
manufacturers will turn out a hammerless gun. I 



88 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

have known men worth a half miUion to shoot them 
with the settled conviction that no better weapon 
could be desired either in action or appearance. 
Such arms are made on exactly the same system 
as higher priced guns which guarantees mechanical 
excellence. Necessarily these arms are turned out 
with extreme rapidity, and the steel must not be 
hard enough to entail too much wear and tear on 
expensive machinery. 

The barrels are of the cheapest quality of steel 
but are strong enough in the medium weights to 
withstand ordinary usage. The frames are drop 
forged and case hardened, but I have sometimes 
found that I could cut the locks and bolts with an 
ordinary pocket knife. The stocks, of the plainest 
description of American walnut, are strong and ser- 
viceable, though not a thing of beauty to begin with, 
and the simple finishing soon wears away, leav- 
ing them baldly ugly. 

Of course this gun is machine made and while the 
working parts are strong they grind in a new gun 
in a way to put your teeth on edge. Despite this, 
perhaps, too severe criticism of the cheap gun of 
standard make, it is not to be denied that such arms 
are good shooters and they will hold together a long 
time. As a rule, arms of this grade are not built 
to order but are turned out after a fixed pattern. 
They are sent in quantities to the retail dealer where 
they are sold to the less discriminating purchaser. 



GRADES AND PRICES 89 



The American Knockabout 

At from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars our stan- 
dard gunbuilders grade their cheapest or knock- 
about arm. These weapons undoubtedly possess 
strength and superior lasting qualities. The bar- 
rels are tough enough to withstand ordinary or ex- 
traordinary usage, being made for the most part of 
modern compressed steel, plain and sound. The 
locks do not differ from the higher grade weapons 
except that they are a trifle softer and are not so 
smoothly ground and polished. The stocks are gen- 
erally of the plain walnut variety, but they will be 
shaped to order in length and drop while the wood 
is sufficiently seasoned to retain its grip on the iron 
unimpaired for years. The world has no better gun 
value for the money than these American knock- 
about guns. They are of such absolute utility, their 
merit so positive, that the owner must constantly re- 
gret the lack of finish in his weapon. Especially is 
this true when he grows to the arm with the passing 
of time and is unwilling to exchange his piece for 
any other. 

Every gunbuilder may have a special feature of 
excellence which he places in these arms. One will 
take pride in close jointing and superior fitting; an- 
other furnishes a better quality of stock, finer in 
finish; some one else may attach barrels of the high- 




90 



GRADES AND PRICES 91 

er grades and great tensile strength; without excep- 
tion, any of our reputable builders will give splendid 
value in these knockabout guns. 

The principle to be observed by the purchaser of 
a knockabout is to buy all gun, unadorned. Every 
dollar which is placed in ornamentation must be sub- 
tracted from the fit, balance, and soundness that 
should alone be considered now. Buy from the man- 
ufacturer whose reputation is behind the piece, for 
from him you secure, free, reputation, knowledge, 
system, and principle of construction. 

At from twenty-eight to thirty-five dollars the 
cheapest of American guns can be obtained having 
self-ejectors. These ejector arms are perfectly reli- 
able though of course very plain. Such weapons are 
certainly worthy of our admiration when we re- 
flect that the entire gun costs no more than the ejec- 
tor mechanism of some' of the imported arms. Con- 
sidering their ability to undergo all kinds of hard 
service for years these knockabout guns, either plain 
or self-ejector, must be regarded as nothing short of 
a triumph for American machinery and methods of 
building. 

Field and Trap Gun 
($100 List to $100 Net.) 

This is the most popular of all our shotguns either 
for trap, field, or wildfowl shooting. It is a balanced 
weapon, lacking in nothing that a modern fowling 




92 



GRADES AND PRICES 



93 



piece should possess. The manufacturers pay due 
attention to every feature of this grade. So strong 
and lasting are these arms that they are practically 
certain to outlive both their day and their owner, 
only to be laid aside with the march of time and 
progress which may finally antlquate them. I have 




The Parker Knockabout; a perfectly fitted gun 

known a hundred dollar list gun to be used steadily 
at the trap, In the field, and upon the marsh for ten 
years without a sign of shaklness or any indication 
that It had not merely ripened with age like good 
whiskey. 

The barrels, while not of the highest grade, are 
practically just as good; the stocks have both grain 
and finish; the frames are drop forged and admir- 
ably case hardened; the springs may be everlasting, 
with the locks, bolts, and all bearings of tempered 
steel; while the jointing and finishing will bear the 
most rigid inspection. These guns have all the 
elegance of balance and outline that the maker can 



94 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



place in any of his output, and even the ornamenta- 
tion of steel and wood will not be neglected. The 
main difference between this grade and those higher 
is in the quality of stocks, the amount of engraving, 
and the hand finishing. I do not mean to argue that 
a sportsman should not buy a higher priced piece 
if he can afford it, but if he cannot there is no reason 
why he should not take a deal of pride in the owner- 
ship of one of these guns. He can at least say to 
himself and his friends that a score of years ago 
no man could have owned a gun like this one though 
he exhausted his bank account. 




Smith Field and Trap Ejector. A good gun in every respect, 
including appearance 

A shotgun at one hundred dollars should have 
every modern improvement with the possible excep- 
tion of the single trigger. It is my belief that the 
time has come when self-ejectors ought invariably 
to replace the plain extractor in this grade — in fact 
the extractor should only be furnished to order and 
then at no reduction in price. It has been charged 



GRADES AND PRICES 95 




Baker Paragon Grade, New Model. $85. No Better Gun for the 

Money 

that we are a conservative people, but the manufac- 
turer can at least be progressive. The single trigger 
is at present so costly that it would not be advisable 
to sacrifice to this mechanism any more important 
feature which might be the case in a weapon at one 
hundred dollars. 

The Higher Grade 

One hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars 
should procure the most carefully selected material 
throughout. The best possible quality of barrels 
might be placed upon it, with stocks of fine English, 
Italian, or Circassian walnut. Only the expert work- 
men of a factory would be employed upon a gun 
of this description — men of pride in their calling, 
who work conscientiously and artistically. Now, at 




96 



GRADES AND PRICES 97 

last, beauty of ornamentation takes its proper place 
with utility and strength. 

The simple scroll and outline engraving might 
well give place to game or hunting scenes, the tastes 
of the purchaser being consulted when the arm is 
made to order. In engraving every one of these 
guns should have a distinct design of its own, not 
only for the sake of the future owner, but that the 
manufacturer may display his own artistic versatility. 

In gunfitting and measurements, at the price of 
two hundred dollars, the gunmaker should be able 
to embody every feature the experienced sportsman 
thinks desirable, the length and shape of the grip, 
the height and thickness of comb, the cast-off of heel 
or twist of toe, the taper of barrels and their weight 
compared with that of stock and frame. 

In addition, the shooting qualities of the gun 
should be thoroughly tested at all ranges, with 
varieties of ammunition and an accurate record kept 
for the sake of the future owner. Not only should 
the weapon make a prescribed pattern with a stand- 
ard load, but the sportsman, who may not have an 
opportunity of experimenting himself, frequently de- 
sires to know the capabilities of his piece with some 
other size or quantity of shot or change of powder. 
This information the builder is receiving pay for 
when he charges two hundred dollars. 

In every specification except engraving and grade 
of wood in the stock the above weapon ought to be 
as good as the manufacturer can possibly turn out 



GRADES AND PRICES 



99 



at any price. Many imported guns are kept in stock 
by dealers who make a specialty of them in the high- 
er grades, but American guns are usually only made 
to order. 

The Highest Grade. 

At three hundred dollars and upward American 
shotguns are built only to order. In this grade the 
manufacturer is given a free hand, where he can use 
all the knowledge and experience that he possesses, 
reinforced by the utmost skill and art of his factory. 
The pride a gunbuilder takes in the construction of a 




The $750 Grade L. C. Smith 

weapon of this kind is not second to that of the 
sculptor who lingers over a piece of statuary with 
loving touches long after the novice would think it 
complete. 

The result is the most beautiful bit of wood and 
iron that the skill of man can put together. I say 
this advisedly for there is nothing that mechanics 




lOO 




lOI 




102 




103 



I04 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

construct quite so handsome as a double hammerless 
gun of the highest grade. I must approve the judg- 
ment of the man who buys one, for beauty and utiHty 
were never so well combined. If the author had a 
hundred thousand dollars to spare he would place 
one thousand of it In guns and the other ninety-nine 
in shooting them; neither would he consider that he 
was displaying anything but good horse sense. 

This is the first grade of shotgun wherein the for- 
eign arms come into active competition with ours. 
I think as good value can be obtained in an English 
or Continental arm at three hundred dollars as in 
any of ours, but it Is the first grade of which I would 
venture to say that. The value, depending largely 
upon the engraving, fitting, and character of the 
hand work placed upon the gun, fairly represents the 
quality of the artisans employed In the different 
countries. 

A hundred choice pieces of wood may be rejected 
before one is found that the manufacturer will at- 
tach to one of these guns. It will be taken from the 
stump or root of the very finest Circassian walnut, 
seasoned thoroughly and oil finished without regard 
to pains or labor. The barrels should be of Sir 
Joseph Whitworth fluid steel or other steel of like 
grade, proved and recorded with all varieties of 
charges. The engraving should reflect the taste of 
the purchaser, and depend upon It the man who 
can appreciate one of these arms will not lack 
esthetic taste of his own. 



CHAPTER VIII 

REPEATING AND AUTOMATIC SHOT- 
GUNS 

X^ THAT I have said heretofore relates entirely 
%/ Y^ to double hammerless guns, but there is 
another type of shotgun which being a 
weapon of absolute merit and a strictly American 
production must not be overlooked. I refer to the 
repeating shotgun either handfunctioned or auto- 
loading. I shall consider them both as one type of 
arm, for undoubtedly the pump repeater is merely 
a halfway house on the march to an automatic. 

Pump guns and auto-loaders may never replace 
the double gun in the affections of sportsmen, yet 
their use is increasing steadily and rapidly. Note 
the picture of a crowd of trap shooters and you 
will observe that the majority of them are armed 
with repeating shotguns of some kind, which is no 
less true of a group of Western hunters. I might 
be wrong but I would consider it a reasonable esti- 
mate to say that one-third of the cartridges loaded 
by our factories will be fired from repeating shot- 
guns. 

105 



io6 



REPEATING AND AUTOMATIC 107 

I believe it is true beyond question or dispute 
that there is more gun, better gun value for the 
money, in an American repeater than in any other 
shotgun in the world. They will shoot as well as any 
smooth bore tube ever fired, and one of them is 
equal to two double guns with a man following about 
to carry one and do the loading — English fashion. 
Unquestionably custom is mighty and a man's prej- 
udices small, for the Briton will have none of the 
repeater on the grounds that it is too deadly and un- 
sportsmanlike, yet he will have the aforesaid two 
guns carried about so that he can kill game as 
rapidly as he could with the repeater. 

The handfunctioned repeaters are so common 
that a detailed description of them would be a waste 
of time. They are made in two models, one working 
with an under lever, now nearly obsolete, and the 
other with a sliding fore-arm, known as the pump- 
action. In the latter, moving this sliding fore-arm 
back and forth ejects the spent shell and reloads. An 
expert can move this slide so fast that he can shoot 
nearly if not quite as rapidly as he could fire two 
shots from a double gun, while at times he will dis- 
charge six shots to the two of the double barreled 
man. 

The pump gun is the favorite trap gun in Ameri- 
ca to-day. If I am not mistaken it holds all Ameri- 
can records at the trap, the longest run on clay 
birds, the best annual professional average, and 
odds the greatest number of first place wins either 



io8 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

amateur or professional. As a trap gun for clay 
birds under present conditions it is unrivaled. It 
balances as well as a double arm, shoots more 
evenly, and will fire five thousand shots for every 
dollar that it cost and still be ready for business. 

Nevertheless, I believe an auto-loading mechanism 
is the ultimate fate of all pump repeaters. Within 
another decade I expect to see every gunbuilder, 
who now places a pump gun on the market, extolling 
the virtues of his own particular automatic. 

The manufacturers claim for this type of gun that 
it is in effect a single trigger, hammerless ejector 
with five barrels to shoot and but one to load and 
care for, a weapon that reloads itself and shoots 
with greatly lessened recoil. A single trigger is ad- 
mittedly an improvement in a double gun, and it 
must have the same advantage in an automatic. The 
double gun derives its prestige over the single shot 
from the fact that it delivers two shots in place of 
one; this being true, three more shots of the auto- 
matic could hardly be considered less than a most 
commendable feature. 

Few who have used a self-ejector will ever return 
to the old method of extracting shells by hand, and 
the auto gun is beyond question a self-ejector. Every 
user of an ejecting double gun must have felt at 
times that if his gun only reloaded itself he could 
ask for no more — the automatic reloads. 

The last claim to superiority made by the builders 
is that a single barrel, not being bound by ri 



REPEATING AND AUTOMATIC 109 

ribs and the contact of another barrel, expands more 
uniformly under pressure of the powder gas and 
hence makes a more round and regular pattern. 

It might be concluded from the foregoing that the 
auto-loader is nothing short of perfection, but the 
other fellow is not slow in telling his side of the 
story. He claims that the automatic is over weight 
for any purpose except duck and trap shooting; that 
the piece utterly lacks balance; that the grip of the 
two hands because of the size of the fore-arm and 
depth of the frame is so far below the line of sight 
that the man accustomed to a double gun cannot 
point the piece straight, but will be absolutely at a 
loss to know when he is holding right. He further 
asserts that because of its complicated mechanism 
the auto arm is bound to break down after a season 
or two. 

He declares that the gun frequently fails to func- 
tion, balks, and must then be worked by hand, mak- 
ing it slower than a single shot. He is positive, too, 
that the piece is an ill looking, clublike affair, with- 
out a single attractive line. He sharply maintains 
that it is an unsportsmanlike arm as well — both a 
game killer and a game crippler owing to the reserve 
of fire which leads the gunner to blaze away wildly 
at everything within range and out of it. Addition- 
ally he protests that there is no such reduction of re- 
coil as the manufacturers claim, but on the other 
hand the piece gives him an additional prod every 
time it is fired. 



no THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

In truth it seems that both sides can readily make 
out a case, and the author hardly feels competent to 
sit in judgment. Doubtless every man will have to 
pass upon the matter himself, and then he will either 
like the arm or he will not and decide accordingly. 

The contention that the arm is unsportsmanlike 
might be thrown out since it depends so much upon 
whose hands are on the gun. A shotgun is made, 
primarily, to kill game and not to save it — the more 
effective it is the better adapted to its purpose. That 
it will kill game is no reason that it should be made 
to do so beyond reason or lawful limit. 

That the mechanism is complicated is something 
hardly to be denied, and no man should expect it to 
have as long and sound a life as a high class double 
gun. However, three auto-loaders can be bought 
at the price of one good double hammerless. It must 
be admitted, too, that the combined cheapness and 
quality of these automatics are the greatest of all 
tributes to the genius of American gunbuilding. 

That the piece lacks the graceful lines of a double 
gun is quite true, though it might alike be asserted 
that the repeating rifle is without the clean lines of 
the single shot. You could hardly attach a magazine 
to a double barrel and maintain its grace of outline. 
Sometimes beauty must yield to utility. 

I believe, myself, that the man accustomed to a 
double gun will have some trouble in shooting as ac- 
curately with the auto because of the distance his 



REPEATING AND AUTOMATIC iii 

pointing hands are below their accustomed place. 
However this is something that time and practice 
will assuredly remedy. 

As to the recoil, while it would appear reasonable 
that some of this would be absorbed by the heavy 
spring and the butt at least come back, with more of 
a push, yet to the man unaccustomed to the auto- 
matic the jerk of the arm as the spring throws the 
barrel back into place is more annoying than the 
sharper blow of the double barrel. 

Since the auto gun is operated by recoil it follows 
that this should be made as nearly a fixed factor as 
possible, which precludes the use of a large variety 
of ammunition with satisfaction. The manufac- 
turers advise shooting standard ammunition only 
when that is possible. At first glance this might be 
thought a hardship, but in the end the gunner will 
discover that the use of a cartridge with a regular 
velocity and breech pressure is the greatest possible 
help toward uniform shooting. In wing-shooting the 
gunner could no more expect to do regular work 
with one shell that gave a velocity of a thousand 
feet and another of eight hundred than he could 
with a rifle having a fixed sight and using one high 
and one low power cartridge. 

The automatic arm, being the latest invention in 
firearms, might still be regarded as in the embryo 
stage. If so we may be forgiven for idly speculating 
as to what the future will bring forth. At present 



112 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

it seems an assured fact that In time all military and 
sporting rifles and side arms will be auto-loading. If 
this is true of rifles why not of shotguns? 

It seems highly probable that every fault that can 
now be found with the automatic will finally be rem- 
edied. Means will be discovered to simplify the 
mechanism. A reduction in gauge would reduce the 
size and clumsy appearance of the fore-arm, giving 
the piece the lines of our present single barrel trap 
gun. The weight of the weapon is certain to be re- 
duced in the immediate future so as to come within 
the standard weights of field arms. Whatever is 
done, we can look forward with great interest to 
automatic gunbuilding, certain that no prejudice, not 
even law enactment, can long retard the develop- 
ment of an arm that in the logic of events must 
displace every weapon of other description. 

For myself, I am looking forward hopefully to 
the appearance of a twenty bore automatic that will 
be neat in outline, positive and lasting in action, and 
with a weight under seven pounds. I should prefer 
that it use dense nitro powder in a shell not over two 
inches long so as to shorten the present heavy 
frame; that the fore-arm be cut down to the last 
ounce of weight; and that the number of shells in 
the magazine be reduced to three. I expect that 
through an improvement in boring and choking the 
entire twenty gauge charge will be placed in a given 
circle in place of sixty-five or seventy per cent., and 
that the charge will be given a muzzle velocity three 



REPEATING AND AUTOMATIC 113 

hundred feet higher than the now standard thousand 
feet. Such a weapon would be as much an improve- 
ment over the twelve gauge double gun of to-day as 
the modern Springfield army rifle is superior to the 
old 45—70. 



CHAPTER IX 
FITTING THE GUN TO THE MAN. 

ONE of the most important features of a shot- 
gun Is its fit, fit and balance having more 
to do with a gunner's ability to perform 
well with his weapon than even the shooting quali- 
ties of the gun. Shotguns can be obtained that are 
quite capable of "outshooting" their owner, how- 
ever expert he may be, and hence the chief study of 
the skilled and the novice alike should be perfect 
fit and balance as contributing to finer holding. 

It is true that there are men who can shoot fairly 
with any gun, just as we have all heard of the man 
who can down his birds as surely from the hip as 
from the shoulder. If the reader happens to belong 
to the "hip-shooting" class this chapter is not for 
him, since he has risen superior to the gunbuilder's 
art and merely requires barrels that will kill. How- 
ever the majority of us do plenty of missing without 
deliberately courting that sort of thing by purchas- 
ing a gun that is unbalanced or a misfit. 

The neatest fitting coat can be procured by going 
to an experienced tailor and being measured for it, 

114 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 1 1 5 

and the best fitting gun should be turned out by the 
expert gunmaker. Nevertheless, when beyond the 
reach of tailor shops, you must needs go to the 
largest retail store you can find and there try on 
coats until you get one that fits, and the same rule 
applies to procuring a gun. A sporting goods dealer 
should have arms of every size, weight, and 
measurement, some of which would be of the exact 
dimensions required. If you are a novice consult 
(the salesman who should know his business, or take 
with you the most experienced of your shooting 

6 7 



Gun Stock Measuring 

1. From trigger to center of butt, 13% ins. (This corresponds with 
an ordinary length of stock of 14 14 ins.). 2. From bottom of standi 
ing frame to center of butt, 17 Vs ins. (This gives correct length of 
141/i in. stock regardless of position of trigger.) 3. From bottom of 
standing frame to heel, 17 in.s. 4. From bottom of standing frame to 
toe, 18 ins. 5. From bottom of standing frame to eud of grip, 7Vj 
ins. (This length well adapted to single trigger.) 

friends. Be careful in the selection of your first gun, 
for you will "grow" to it, and it will always in- 
fluence you thereafter, perhaps in the wrong way. 
The fit of a gun relates principally to the length 
and drop of stock, the drop, thickness, and shape of 
comb, the length, shape, and size of the grip, the 
slant and shape of the buttplate, and possibly its 
cast-off. The balance of the piece, technically 



ii6 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

known as its "hang," concerns its equable distribu- 
tion of weight. 

Measuring a Gun Stock 

A glance at the accompanying drawing will tell 
more of the method of measuring gun stock than 
any written text. The system shown is more "lab- 
orate than that in use by any gunbuilder In this 
country, yet there is warrant for taking all the vari- 
ous dimensions. As a rule on orders, the manufac- 
turers ask for the length of stock from front trigger 
to center of butt, and the drop at comb and heel, 
the remainder of the stock being machined out ac- 
cording to a fixed form. If a man is going to the 
aforementioned skilled tailor he shoulei be forgiven 
for asking that his coat fit elsewhere as well as in 
the chest and sleeves. The proportions of stock 
given in the cut must not be taken as standard or 
the conclusion reached that an arm of its dimensions 
will fit everybody. It is simply a well proportioned 
medium gun which nearly every individual would 
find necessary to change in some particular, possibly 
in all. 

American shotguns are built with a length of 
stock ranging from thirteen and three-quarters to 
fifteen Inches. Those kept in stock by dealers are 
of medium measurements, say from fourteen to 
fourteen and one-half inches. For several reasons 
gun stocks are now made longer and straighter than 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 1 1 7 

were once popular. Trap shooting is in a degree 
responsible for this. The man at the traps is per- 
mitted to place the butt of his gun to his shoulder 
and for this reason can handle a gun with a half 
inch longer stock than he could afield. Moreover 
he has discovered that a long stock punishes the face 
less and the reduced shock is not so liable to pro- 
duce gun-headache. Then, too, a long stock causes 
a tendency to shoot high which is a decided advan- 
tage with the rising clay birds. An arm throwing 
its charge a trifle high is a killing gun, too, in up- 
land shooting where the game as a rule is rising 
from the ground. 

Perhaps a changed style of shooting has had 
more to do with the lengthening and straightening 
of gun stocks than any other one thing. The present 
manner of wing-shooting is to point the gun with 
both eyes open, which necessitates a line of sight 
well above the rib. In the past it was thought im- 
possible to aim without closing one eye and squint- 
ing the other flat over the rib as though it were the 
sight of a rifle. This matter will be treated at 
length in its proper place; sufllicient now to say that 
one-eye sighting rendered a crooked stock impera- 
tive in the past and would to-day. The longer stocks 
have come with the gradual evolution of the piece 
from arms now obsolete. 

The shooting principles involved in the length of 
stocks are: A stock too long may balk the shooter 
by catching under his armpit as the piece comes up 



ii8 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

for a quick shot; it causes shooting too high and be- 
hind; it strains the arm and shooting hand, possibly 
causing a premature "let-off." A short stock shoots 
low; it allows the recoil to catch the gunner's face 
in place of his shoulder, thus causing gun-headache 
and flinching. More stocks are too short than too 
long, on the same principle that a man can wear a 
boot that is too large but he cannot if too small. 

The Comb 

The comb is known indifferently as the comb and 
the cone, but as there is another feature of a gun 
known as the cone — that section of the barrel just 
in front of the shell chamber — I shall adhere to 
the term comb when referring to the upper portion 
of the stock just back of the grip, against which the 
cheek is pressed when aiming. It is shown in figure 
6 of the diagram on stock measuring. Since it gov- 
erns and regulates the "line of aim" both horizon- 
tally and in elevation, no feature of gun fitting is of 
greater importance than the comb. Its drop from 
the level of the barrels gives the correct elevation 
to the charge and its shape whether thick or thin 
regulates the line of sight, keeping it directly over 
the center of the rib. As a matter of fact there are 
just two sights of any possible use in shotgun work, 
one being the comb and the other the object shot at. 
Even the front bead is placed there merely in de- 
ference to custom and old fashioned methods of 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 1 19 

shooting, never being seen when in actual use at 
flying objects. 

Personally the writer likes a thick, well-rounded 
comb because it punishes the face less where a great 
many shots are fired and brings the line of sight 
directly over the center of the breech when used 
in connection with a drop of an inch and a half. 
However, faces and eyes differ and every man must 
be a law unto himself In the drop and shape of the 
comb he uses. Our late models of shotguns are 
built with a drop at comb of from i j4 to iji 
inches, the majority of those not built to order 
ranging from i^/^ to i^ inches. 

Formerly gun stocks were much more crooked 
and occasionally had a drop of two and a half 
inches at comb and four at the heel. For upland 
work and especially for trap shooting the comb 
should be of such a height as to throw the body of 
the charge above the line of aim. A gun built ex- 
pressly for wildfowl shooting might well have the 
comb an eighth or a quarter of an inch lower than 
for quail or clay birds, — this for the reason that you 
are nearly as liable to overshoot a passing bird as 
to undershoot him. 

If the buttplate is comparatively straight or flat, 
the drop at heel is of minor importance compared 
with that at comb, since the butt can be raised higher 
or lower to the shoulder as may be required. How- 
ever, guns are usually built with a proper propor- 
tion of drop between comb and heel. A drop of 



I20 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

1^4 inches at comb calls for a 2 inch drop at heel; 
one of I ^ — 2^4; i >4 — 2>/> ; i^ — 2^; 1 f^ — 
2^4; I J^^ — 3 inches. Of course, individual tastes 
and conformation will vary these dimensions. Live 
pigeon shots have used guns straighter than any of 
those given. The clay bird men find it advisable to 
adopt the straighter of the measurements, the up- 
land shooters the medium, and the "one-eyed" per- 
former the crooketi ones. 

The Monte Carlo Comb 

The Monte Carlo stock, which should be termed 
the Monte Carlo comb, is shown in the illustration. 




The Monte Carlo comb 

This comb runs straight back, every part of it having 
a like drop from the level of the barrels in place 
of sloping to the butt as usual. The object of this 
is to have the line of sight the same whether the 
cheek is placed close up to the grip or farther back. 
Theoretically this sort of comb is right, but in prac- 
tice I have not found it to improve one's shooting 
materially, for the reason that a practiced shot 
will invariably place his cheek to one spot and the 
elevation of the comb elsewhere cannot matter 
greatly. However, the novice whose shooting habits 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 121 

are less firmly entrenched, might find It a positive 
advantage. In any event, this comb could hardly 
prove disadvantageous either to the expert or the be- 
ginner. Its only faults are that It detracts some- 
what from the clean, racy outline of the stock and 
adds a few ounces to the weight of the breech end 
which needs to be reckoned with if the weapon Is to 
retain its perfect balance. A few years ago such 
combs became a fad and many ordinary stocks were 
fitted with them by gunsmiths. My advice would be 
to try a gun with this sort of comb either in the 
field or at the traps before purchasing and then, If 
you like it, shoot only the guns that have such 
combs. Do not attempt to shoot one gun with the 
Monte Carlo stock and another without as that 
would handicap you unnecessarily. 

Cast-Off 

The English are firm believers in cast-off, that Is 
In a stock which deviates either to the right or left 
from a straight line behind the rib. They argue that 
the butt being placed to the shoulder, well to one 
side of the head, the eye will naturally be looking 
across the barrels in place of with them unless there 
Is a cast-off to bring the tubes in line. This would be 
simple truth if the man's neck were encased in an 
Iron collar so that he could not bend it to get in 
line. Moreover the Briton only recommends a 
cast-off of from one-eighth to three-eighths of an 



122 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

inch, whereas it would have to be as many inches 
were the neck not bent toward the comb. A cast- 
off of one-eighth of an inch at butt gives but one- 
seventeenth at comb which at one hundred feet 
would only place the charge two inches to the side of 
where it would have gone without the cast-off — not 
enough to cause a miss where the charge covers 
thirty inches. 

As a rule American stocks are made straight or 
without cast-off, and yet the American marksmen 
are the best in the world to-day. We regulate the 
line of aim by the drop and shape of comb, as pre- 
viously mentioned, in place of casting off the stock. 
Nevertheless, if a man prefers to shoot a very high 
comb, he may find a cast-off an advantage, since 
otherwise there will be difficulty in getting the eye 
over the center of the rib without shooting too high. 
It is all much a matter of habit and usage. If you 
have learned to shoot the cast-off stock and perform 
well with it, why stick to it, but if you have not, it 
is likely to cast your charge off just so much more 
than it ought to. 

The Grip 

Lines four and five, diagram p. 115, give length 
and circumference of the grip. The dimensions of 
the grip require special study for several reasons. 
The length of the stock is governed in a great meas- 
ure by the length of the grip taken in connection 
with the place the left hand grasps the barrels or 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 1 23 

fore-end; lengthening the grip at once has the effect 
of shortening the stock. This can be noted 
by taking hold of the rear of the grip and at the 
same time shifting the left hand back toward the 
frame; the stock will come up, missing the shoulder 
exactly as though it were too short. This explains 
why a long stocked gutji is more liable to balk you 
when shooting with the front trigger. Hence it fol- 
lows that if your gun is to fit you in length of stock it 
must also have a grip of correct length. 

Grips vary in length with different guns from 
seven to seven and one-half inches and even more. 
The illustration shows one of the latter length. This 
measurement is best adapted to long fingers or to 
pulling the rear trigger. With a small hand, espe- 
cially when the habit is to shoot the right barrel 
first, seven inches is long enough. A better control 
of the gun is maintained where the hands grasping 
fore-end and grip are well apart, but ease in reach- 
ing and pulling the triggers must not be sacrificed 
to this. 

In the nature of things the grip cannot be of ex- 
actly the right length for pulling both the front and 
rear triggers, and as a medium seven and a quarter 
inches is a very nice measurement for hands of 
average size. It should be remembered when or- 
dering a gun that the different gunbuilding firms 
all have a standard length and shape of grip to 
which guns will be built unless otherwise ordered. 

Whether a gun shall be constructed with a pistol 



124 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

or a straight grip is much a matter of taste In ap- 
pearances. Some claim that the straight grip is a 
trifle quicker, but I have never heard a good reason 
advanced to prove it. Such a thing as a real pistol 
grip of the kind we are accustomed to in revolvers 
and single shot pistols is impossible with a shotgun. 
At most there is only a trifling curve to the part 
grasped by the hand. The principle of a pistol grip 
Is that the pressure Is put upon the trigger solely by 
the grasp of the hand and the contracting forefin- 
ger, while shotgun triggers are pulled by the arm 
drawing back, only the last few additional ounces 
being applied by the contraction of the finger. If 
the grip were sufficiently curved it might interfere 
with this pull back of the arm but it never is. There- 
fore select a straight or pistol-grip as may please 
your fancy without fear that either will materially 
influence your ability to handle the gun. 

Grips vary in circumference from four to five 
inches. The former size is suitable only for a lady 
or a boy and the last is adapted to a very large 
hand. Four and a half inches is an average size and 
will be found satisfactory to the majority. A grip 
that Is too large will cause the gun to handle clum- 
sily and one too small Is still worse since It permits 
the stock to roll In the grasp and the hand fails to 
take up the amount of recoil that It should. It 
should not be checkered too smoothly but left rather 
rough to the feel. I should like to say now, in pass- 
ing, that the best shaped grips and the handsomest 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 



I2C 



finished of any In the world are those to be found 
on high grade American shotguns. 

The Butt Plate 

The butt plate shown in the illustration is five and 
one-fourth inches long which is about an average. 
Lengthening the line to toe and shortening that to 
heel will give more slant, and the shape of butt is 
governed by these two measurements in connection 
with the length of stock. The stock can be drawn in 
at the center, leaving a bump at the heel and a long 
toe if desired. It is wise to leave these measure- 
ments to the gunmaker unless you have developed 
positive ideas from experience. A longer stock can 
be used by giving the butt more slant so that the 
heel will not catch in coming up. A deeply incurved 
butt leads to more regularity in placing the gun to 
the shoulder but is slower. It is best adapted to 
trap shooting where the butt is placed to the shoul- 
der before calling "pull." 




Measurements of stock for single trie 



The illustration shows the manner of measuring 
a stock for a single trigger. Different manufacturers 



126 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

place their single trigger in slightly different posi- 
tions so that the most uniform and reliable lines are 
those taken from the bottom of the standing breech. 
The grip of a single trigger gun can well be from 
one-fourth to a half inch longer than one intended 
for a two trigger gun. The unvarying grasp of the 
hand in a single trigger gun maintains both uni- 
formity of length of stock and balance. The single 
trigger has a chapter of its own and It is suf- 
ficient here to state that it is especially adapted to 
straight and long grips thus permitting the use of 
long stocks and materially assisting in steadiness of 
holding. 

Gun Balance 

The balance of a gun has always been regarded 
as something of a mystery. The usual statement is 
that the gun balances, that it comes up right, or that 
it has just the correct "hang" and feel in the shoot- 
er's hands. These statements are not especially en- 
lightening to the novice, and I shall attempt to 
analyze and give reasons. Naturally a shooter's 
previous experience of the gun he has become accus- 
tomed to shooting will have a very considerable in- 
fluence when a new arm is being tested. If the sports- 
man has been handling a weapon that is muzzle 
heavy or the reverse for fifteen or twenty years he 
will consider every gun defective in balance that is 
not similar to his old piece. For this reason the be- 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 127 

ginner cannot place such absolute reliance upon the 
advice of his veteran friend as he might otherwise. 

A gun balances when its center of actual weight 
is midway between the two bands grasping the fore- 
end and the grip. Either hand then supports a like 
amount of weight, there is no undue strain, and the 
arm comes to the face level and true to the line of 
sight. This equable distribution of weight to either 
arm has the effect of causing the weapon to "handle 
light" or to feel lighter than it actually is. 

The "point of balance," or center of weight, 
given in the illustration is three and a half inches 
in front of the standing breech. Naturally this point 
will vary somewhat with the length of stock, length 
of barrels, length of grip, and position of the left 
hand grasping the barrels, but in every true hang- 
ing gun it should not be greatly removed from the 
spot indicated in the drawing. To be sure it may be 
argued that it will be found very difficult to bring 
the center of weight midway between the two hands 
when the stock is made long and heavy and the bar- 
rels short and light. All of which is very true, and 
it will be just as difficult to make such a proportioned 
piece balance — in fact it will be impossible. 

I recently had the pleasure of measuring and 
weighing a twenty bore gun from the shops of one 
of our best builders. The point of balance was just 
in front of the trigger guard. The entire gim 
weighed five pounds, fifteen ounces. It had a four- 



128 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

teen and one-fourth inch stock with twenty-six inch 
barrels; the barrels with fore-end weighed two 
pounds three ounces, the stock and frame, three 
pounds, twelve ounces. In balance it was a startling 
illustration of what a gun has no business to be. The 
true proportions of weight between barrels and 
fore-end compared with the frame and breech 
should be in the vicinity of four pounds for the for- 
mer to three and a half to the latter. These might 
be varied a trifle without destroying balance, yet 
never to the extent of having stock and action out- 
weigh barrels and fore-end. 

The things to be remembered in connection with 
the balance of a gun are: A muzzle heavy gun has 
a tendency to shoot low and behind; it is slower. 
The recoil is not felt to the same extent as with a 
muzzle-light gun; it hangs where it is fired and the 
second barrel can be placed more promptly. A gun 
light at the muzzle is quick and shoots high. The 
recoil throws up the muzzle like a heavily charged 
pistol making it slow to get on with the second 
barrel. 

Try-Guns and Shooting Schools 

The try-gun is an American invention but has 
never been of much practical use in this country of 
long distances, where ninety-nine guns in the hun- 
dred are ordered by mail or bought ready made. 
It consists of an adjustable stock in which every 
measurement can be changed until the intending pur- 



FITTING GUN TO MAN 129 

chaser secures an exact fit on the lines of which the 
new gun is built. 

The try-gun is shot at a shooting school, so-called, 
a range where an object is thrown at all speeds and 
angles across a background of painteci boards or 
other material which indicates accurately where 
every load is placed. When the loads invariably go 
true to the line of aim the stock is pronounced a 
fit. In the nature of things these shooting schools 
where one practically shoots with visible shot are 
of even more benefit in teaching the tyro to hold and 
shoot than in giving him measurements for a new 
gun. As a matter of fact, the schools are used prin- 
cipally to teach wing-shooting, but that phase is 
outside the province of this chapter. 



CHAPTER X 
GAUGES AND CHARGES 

TO a certain extent omnipotent fashion even re- 
gulates the bores of our shotguns. A gene- 
ration or so ago the ten bore was in 
fashion, very few sportsmen having any real confi- 
dence in any smaller gauge. To-day the once popu- 
lar big gun is securely locked in its case and the key 
is lost. It is now the correct thing to say that the 
modern twelve is more effective than the once uni- 
versal ten, that it will shoot harder, make a better 
pattern, and kill farther. The latest tendency is to 
repeat history by substituting smaller gauges for 
the twelve. The same stories, once applied to the 
ten and twelve, are being repeated concerning the 
lighter guns, the shooter confidently declaring that 
they are the most deadly in his hands. 

All this is mere elementary human nature, for 
really it seems the easiest of all deceptions is self- 
deception. However, it is well to view every sub- 
ject from the standpoint of logic and reason some- 
times, and logically and reasonably the twenty-eight 
gauge with its ^^ ounce of shot is not so powerful as 

130 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 131 

the eight gauge with its two ounces, both loads 
shooting into the same size of circle and being 
driven with like velocities. Nevertheless a lady 
would not select a rail-splitter's maul to drive her 
croquet ball, neither would the man-of-the-maul tol- 
erate the croquet mallet in his business. There may 
be an excess of weight and power just as the mallet 
would certainly be utterly useless in sinking a great 
iron wedge into an oak tree. 

Every gauge from the eight down is a weapon of 
merit, adapted to some branch of sport, and none of 
them can be said to be perfect for all-round use, 
though the twelve and sixteen come the nearest to 
it. In writing this chapter on gauges and loads it is 
my intention to point out the special uses to which 
the different sizes are best adapted. First it may be 
taken as an axiom, not to be disputed, that the big- 
ger the bore the larger shot it will handle effectively, 
thus cleveloping power for two reasons, weight of 
charge and range of shot. In loading cartridges the 
ammunition manufacturers practically give the same 
initial v^elocity to the charges of all gauges, small 
and large, and consequently the killing power can be 
reckoned mathematically from the amount and size 
of the shot. 

In calculating the killing power of a gauge and 
charge it must never be forgotten, however, that the 
v/eight of gun must be in proportion to its bore and 
load, otherwise the formula is deceptive and wrong. 
For example, a seven pound ten bore is by no 



132 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

means so powerful a weapon as a twelve pound 
twelve bore, though both arms are on the freakish 
order. The eternal fitness of things requires that 
the weight of gun should govern the gauge and the 
gauge should govern the charge. The matter of 
chokes and patterns will be treated in a separate 
chapter; sufficient here to state that all the dif- 
ferent gauges of similar choke pattern into the same 
size of circle, despite an almost universal belief to 
the contrary. 

The Eight Gauge 

Four gauge guns are used to quite an extent in 
Europe, but in a shooting experience extending over 
thirty years I have seen but one battery of them 
in this country, and as they are not made in America 
a description of them seems unnecessary. Eight 
gauges, however, have their proper place in a sports- 
man's armory, being particularly adapted to some 
forms of wildfowl shooting. They are a killing 
weapon on the sea coast, especially in goose and 
brant shooting, and many prefer them for canvas- 
backs and redheads where the birds have been per- 
secuted into unusual wariness. 

An eight gauge makes a very useful addition to a 
battery where several guns are carried into the blind. 
It will pull down ducks and geese entirely beyond 
the range of smaller bores, and there is a fascina- 
tion in tripping up a saucy old mallard that, having 
fully sized up the situation, fancies that he is 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 133 

staying well outside the danger zone of a shotgun. 
The big gun is always liable to thin a passing flock, 
too, at outrageous distances. 

American eight bores are built in weights from 
eleven to sixteen pounds, with barrels from thirty- 
tw^o to forty inches long. The most popular length 
of barrels is thirty-four inches on a weight of gun of 
fourteen pounds. The lighter weights are never 
worth while in a gun of this gauge since its chief 
recommendation lies in its ability to throw heavy 
charges. 

The machine loaded shells for this gauge vary 
from five to five and one-half drams of nitro pow- 
der, with a shot charge of one and a half to one and 
three-fourths ounces. However, these loads are 
adapted to arms of very moderate weight, and the 
true utility of the weapon is shown with charges of 
from six to seven drams of powder anci at least two 
ounces of shot. The English are accustomed to use 
much heavier cartridges than those recommended 
here, up to eight drams of powder and three ounces 
of shot. Machine loaded shells are charged with 
shot from four's to BBs, and anything smaller than 
four's are no more adapted to the gauge than it is 
to quail shooting. Number one shot is much liked 
for goose shooting, two and three for ducks. 

Properly bored and with two ounces of number 
one or two shot, the eight gauge should kill with 
fair regularity up to seventy yards, with occasional 
execution on flocks at one hundred. The recoil of 



134 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

the weapon Is not excessive, with the charges given, 
in weights above twelve pounds, though the writer 
strongly recommends the heaviest piece which the 
gunner can handle effectively. It should be remem- 
bered that it takes practice to swing this heavy arm, 
otherwise the sportsman may lose his usually correct 
time and do poorer work than he would with a light- 
er gauge and charge. 

The Ten Gauge 

The ten bore gun, in black powder days, killed 
off the passenger pigeon at trap and afield, thinned 
the ranks of the pinnated grouse, and decimated the 
wildfowl of many sections. It has killed more game 
than any other gun in America, being popular in the 
days when large bags were a proof of sportsman- 
ship. Once it was considered the all-round gun, 
equally services^'- on lake or upland, but to-day 
its use is restricted to the marsh and shore. 

It Is the wildfowl gun par excellence. Temporari- 
ly fad and fashion may supersede it, but it will come 
to Its own again, being of that combination of 
weight, gauge, and charge that is not to be equaled 
by any other bore for the special purpose of duck 
and goose shooting. It is not an upland gun for 
its weight precludes its being used with comfort in 
the field. Should Its dimensions be so reduced as to 
make It a comfortable weapon to carry, it would 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 135 

have no more power than a twelve, and so we must 
consider it strictly a "fowling-piece". 

Ten gauges are built in weight from seven to 
fourteen pounds; as usual, the medium sizes are the 
most desirable. Barrels vary in length from 
twenty-eight to thirty-four inches, or even longer on 
special orders, but there is no good reason for going 
to extremes. Lengths of thirty-two and thirty-four 
inches have the most to recommend them and are 
generally specified on orders. Ten gauges are man- 
ufactured in double, single barrels, and repeaters, 
the latter being much esteemed by market gunners. 

American machine loaded shells, ten gauge, are 
filled with from 3J4 drams of nitro powder, and 
13^ ounces of shot to 4^4 drams and an ounce and 
a quarter. Ten bores were restricted by rule to 
an ounce and a quarter of shot in pigeon shooting 
days, this by way of equalizing the ten and twelve; 
subsequently the ten was barred entirely from trap 
work, but the manufacturers got into a rut and 
stayed there so far as charges for the big gun were 
concerned. When the ten was at the zenith of its 
popularity much heavier loads were in use, and 
miniature charges have done much to injure the 
prestige of a splendid weapon. 

The ten gauge duck gun will handle an ounce 
and a half of shot with the same facility and dead- 
liness that a twelve bore pigeon gun will an ounce 
and a quarter, neither, given a proper amount of 



136 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

metal, will the recoil exceed that of the twelve and 
the breech pressure will not be greater. Foreign gun- 
builders recommend charges up to two ounces with 
seventy-five grains of nitro powder, but moderation 
is a good thing in charging shotguns as in other 
things. A very effective load for a twelve pound 
ten bore is five drams of powder and an ounce and 
a half of shot, number five or larger. If smaller 
pellets are used, or the piece weighs under the 
figure mentioned, the load should be reduced. The 
cartridges listed by our ammunition people are in- 
tended for arms weighing ten pounds and under. 

Ten gauge shells are loaded with all sizes of shot 
from buckshot to number tens, but as this bore is 
only to be recommended where range and power are 
requisite, small shot are a waste of energy. The 
most popular sizes run from fives for fresh water 
ducks to threes for geese and brant. A few shells 
loaded with BBs might be carried for extremely 
long shots at flocks, though flock shooting cannot be 
commended on the score of sportsmanship. 

Given a weight of from twelve to fourteen pounds 
and charged up to the capacity of the gauge, I should 
consider a ten bore effective on ducks up to sixty 
yards with a possibility of tumbling many a bird 
beyond that distance. The heavy ten bore, loaded 
with large shot, driven at high velocity, should have 
ten yards the advantage of an ordinary twelve gauge 
"game-gun", and this often means all the diflterence 
between a comfortable bag and a scant one. 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 137 

The Twelve Gauge 

Throughout the world the twelve gauge is the 
standard shotgun for trap shooting both at live and 
clay birds. Of all shotguns it is the nearest to an 
all purpose weapon, being unequaled for trap shoot- 
ing under present conditions, excellent on wildfowl, 
and as good as the best for upland work. More 
twelve bores are manufactured than of all other 
gauges combined, and the shells constructed for it 
are of a variety not approached by other sizes. Am- 
munition and gunbuilders have placed the twelve 
upon a pedestal and figuratively thrown all the other 
gauges into the junk heap. 

Writers have insisted that the twelve would 
handle ten gauge loads better than would the ten 
and twenty-gauge more effectively than the twenty. 
Sportsmen have almost come to believe that the 
twelve is the only real shotgun, the remaining gauges 
being built only for "cranks." There is sufficient 
truth in these claims to make them difficult to con- 
trovert, even if that were worth while, for, as stated, 
the twelve is undoubtedly the best all purpose gun 
now constructed. 

Loads have been fitted for it as light as 2^/2 
drams of powder and J4 ounce of shot and then the 
eighth has been split giving 15-16 of an ounce or an 
ounce and a sixteenth. The English often use this 
last charge on their domesticated, driven partridges 



138 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

and think it just right. American gunbuilders hav^e 
insisted upon three drams of powder and 1% ounce 
of shot as giving the maximum results with this 
gauge, and have bored and regulated their guns for 
it. However, the practical marksmen whose bread 
and butter depend upon results have never agreed 
with them, but unanimously favor an ounce and a 
quarter driven by a stiff charge of powder. 

So long as people are persuaded that the twelve 
gauge is the only gun worth owning, freak weapons 
will necessarily be produced, twelves weighing as 
light as five pounds and others pulling the scales at 
twelve. 

Sportsmen should use the same hard sense in the 
selection of guns as in other matters. If their shoot- 
ing demands a heavy gun and powerful ammunition, 
there is nothing in the least unsportsmanlike in se- 
lecting the ten bore, though some "newspaper gun- 
ner" has called it a cannon, and remember that 
there is a twenty-bore built for twenty-gauge am- 
munition. It would not be worth while to dwell 
upon this except that the twelve has been standard- 
ized more or less at the expense of the other sizes 
larger and smaller. The twelve gauge is a good 
gun — none better — , but it is not entirely without 
limitations. Miniature loads in a twelve lack a kill- 
ing velocity, and over charges are simply a pigeon 
shooter's method of "beating the devil around the 
stump." Nevertheless if the sportsman is confined 
to one gun and has a variety of shooting, including 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 139 

an occasional day at the traps, then by all means 
select a twelve, but have it of reasonable dimensions 
in proportion to its gauge. 

The twelve gauge is built in this country in weights 
of from five and three quarters to twelve pounds, 
with barrels from twenty-six to thirty-two inches. As 
a rule for field work an arm is selected weighing 
from six and a half to seven and a half pounds, for 
trap shooting from seven and half to eight and a 
quarter, and special wildfowl guns may be still heav- 
ier. It can be secured in all models, single barrels, 
double, repeaters, auto-loaders, and at all prices 
from the four dollar "nigger" gun to the seven hun- 
dred and fifty dollar work of art. The feather- 
weight twelve is a foreign affair, serviceable on 
hand-reared birds, but not adapted to American 
shooting. When constructed of the lightest weights 
it is an abominable arm and in justice to our man- 
ufacturers it should be stated that they have never 
favored it, though they have built some of them 
to meet foreign competition. If the twelve is to 
become an all-purpose arm it should closely follow 
the dimensions favored by the trapshooters, with 
metal enough to back up heavy recoil when powerful 
loads are demanded. 

The lightest machine loaded twelve gauge shells 
obtainable are those containing i ^ drams of black 
powder and }i ounces of shot; the heaviest are 
filled with 3-)4 drams of powder and i )4 ounces of 
shot. Field shots with medium weight arms are 



I40 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

usually content with a load of three drams and an 
ounce and an eighth, while three and a quarter 
drams and an ounce and a quarter is the standard 
for clay birds. Ten or a dozen years ago 
when live pigeon shooting was in vogue, 
still more powder was sometimes thought neces- 
sary up to four drams. English authorities 
recommend this amount of powder with an 
ounce and three-eighths of shot for the heaviest 
work on wildfowl, but if a gun is to use such charges 
it must be built, bored, and chambered especially for 
them, and then the writer is inclined to believe that 
it had better be a ten. 

It should be borne in mind that a twelve gauge 
will not handle large shot quite so well as a ten bore, 
and therefore for duck shooting sixes and sevens 
usually take the place of the fours and fives found 
the most deadly in the larger cartridges. Personally 
I prefer sevens for the small ducks and sixes for 
the large varieties, driven at high velocity. The 
field load is not powerful enough for ducks except 
at modest ranges. 

The large shot in a small bore prove to be great 
cripplers owing to the openness of the pattern, for 
it must not be forgotten that it takes more than one 
pellet to kill as a rule. Three number sevens are 
more liable to kill dead at medium ranges than one 
BB, yet there are nearly six times as many of the 
smaller shot in a load. I have seen a woodpecker 
fly fifty yards with a 22 caliber bullet through him 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 141 

and have known a prairie chicken to struggle along 
for a quarter of a mile with a fifty caliber bullet 
hole in him a trifle far back. 



The Sixteen Gauge 

The sixteen gauge is the first of the guns usually 
termed small-bores. It is a thoroughbred with just 
the outside diameter of barrels and general slender 
strength that unite beauty with utility. This gauge 
is a favorite with ladies who spend time afield for 
the double reason that its proportions appeal to the 
esthetic taste and its charge is effective with no 
severe recoil. 

Should the time ever come when an improvement 
will be made in shotguns similar to choke boring, 
or the increased power that came with nitro powder, 
the sixteen would replace the twelve for trap-shoot- 
ing and general all-round use. Even now it is with- 
out a superior for upland work on such game as 
snipe, quail, woodcock, and ruffed grouse. Its stand- 
ard charge of an ounce of shot is ideal, for medium 
weight guns, and when driven with fair velocity is 
sufficiently deadly for all practical purposes in the 
field. Furthermore it is a corking good little gun 
in the duck blind as many a keen sportsman can 
vouch; indeed, where the birds are decoying well, 
nothing better need be desired. 

However, the special province of the sixteen is 
the upland or in any sport wherein the gun needs 




142 



/ GAUGES AND CHARGES 143 

to be carried afoot for hours at a time. For the 
man who prefers carrying a lightweight gun in his 
tramps after quail, for him who would match skill 
with skill in pursuit of the saucy "jacks", for the 
lonely partridge hunter who requires first of all a 
quick eye and a ready hand, I would strongly advise 
a light sixteen bore. Should the gunner be able to 
afford a modest armory of weapons, too, with one 
for the trap, another for wildfowl, and an addi- 
tional arm for the uplands, then by all means include 
the sixteen for the daintier game. You would never 
employ an elephant rifle to slay a rabbit and neither 
should it be necessary to throw an ounce and a quar- 
ter of shot at a four ounce snipe. 

Ammunition makers and gunbuilders in catering 
to the twelve bore have failed to develop fully the 
power and utility of the sixteen. Some of the manu- 
facturers appear to think that the man who prefers 
to shoot a small-bore is more or less of a comic- 
opera-sport anyhow, so they fit him out with a feath- 
erweight gun and ammunition so light that he can 
harm neither the gun nor the game. Never forget 
that the weight of metal in the barrels and the 
strength of the ammunition are prime factors in the 
power of any weapon whatever its gauge. 

Sixteen gauges are built of a weight of from five 
to eight pounds, the majority of American guns 
ranging between six and seven pounds. The barrels 
are from twenty-six to thirty-two inches long, but 
the manufacturers have shown what the writer con- 



144 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

siders an unfortunate inclination to recommend short 
barrels for the sixteen, — this by way of lightening 
the gun without reducing strength at the breech. 
Naturally a gun that would balance perfectly with 
thirty inch barrels will not do so with twenty-six, 
and a combination of stock and frame heavy enough 
for a 73/2 pound twelve bore with barrels shortened 
and lightened to make the gun weigh six, is deplora- 
ble. Thirty inch barrels in a sixteen bore with the 
stock cut on finer lines than a twelve make an es- 
pecially elegant looking weapon. Should the arm 
weigh over seven and a half pounds or be intended 
for trap and duck shooting, then try the thirty-two 
inch barrels. 

Should the reader contemplate purchasing a small 
bore gun after becoming accustomed to a twelve, I 
should like to warn him against making too radical 
a change either in the weight or length of barrels; 
otherwise he may lose that regular time that he has 
been years in acquiring and so condemn the gun for 
what is not its fault. However, the natural disposi- 
tion of every man is to use a lighter gun and smaller 
gauge as he becomes older. 

The sixteen gauge will handle any charge of shot 
well from ^ of an ounce to an ounce and an 
eighth, but in factory loaded shells there is no such 
variation. In shot their cartridges contain either ^ 
of an ounce or an ounce, driven by from 2^ to 2^ 
drams of powder. The standard load is 2^ drams 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 145 

and an ounce — a load nicely adapted to lightweight 
guns where only moderate power is required. One 
ounce of shot is the maximum limit in machine load- 
ed shells, yet in muzzle-loading days an ounce and 
a quarter was thrown by these guns without the gun- 
ner becoming aware that he was exceeding a common 
sense load. I have known sixteen gauge shells to 
be used at the trap with splendid execution charged 
with an ounce and an eighth of shot and three drams 
of powder. Nevertheless manufacturers should not 
be criticized too harshly for clinging to light loads 
since a long shot column in a small-bore adds great- 
ly to the breech pressure, disturbs the pattern in 
some guns, and if driven at a high velocity may 
cause excessive leading or balling of the shot. 

My own load for duck shooting is three drams 
of powder, well wadded, and an ounce of seven 
chilled shot. Shot from a close shooting seven and 
a quarter pound gun this load is effective up to forty- 
five yards, but it would cause a sharp recoil in any 
gun weighing under six and three-fourths pounds. 
Numbers seven and a half and eight shot give per- 
fect satisfaction in quail shooting and are just as 
deadly on snipe if the gun is not bored too open. 
I have never found it advisable to use shot for 
any kind of game shooting smaller than eight and 
a half. What has been said of using large shot in 
a twelve bore applies with more force to the six- 
teen. 



146 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



The Twenty Gauge 

At present the twenty gauge Is attracting a great 
deal of attention and no little controversy. Those 
partial to the little gun take the rather untenable 
ground that it is fully as powerful as the large bores 
or perhaps even more deadly for some mysterious 
reason, while the hard-headed old conservatives will 
not grant it any utility whatever, applying to it the 
terms popgun and grasshopper-killer. As usual the 
truth is somewhere between the extremes. Only the 
man with a fertile imagination could pronounce it as 
powerful as a ten gauge, but the arm that will kill 
clean and sure up to thirty-five or forty yards is 
not to be called a toy. As we have noted in the 
other gauges, its effectiveness is much a matter of 
weight, strength of charge, and the amount of choke 
in the barrels. 

As will be further exemplified when we come to 
treating of patterns, the twenty is for the skilled 
field shot who can center his bird with a small pat- 
tern time after time. For such as he the twenty 
affords added pleasure in field work with practically 
the same deadliness as the largest bore. This gauge 
is not the gun for the pothunter or the man who 
takes pride in the size of his bag, but on the score 
of sportsmanship everything can be said in its favor. 

It is the writer's deliberate opinion that no shot- 
gun, whatever its gauge, is to be taken seriously if 



148 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

it weighs under six pounds. A four and a half pound 
twenty, loaded with a half ounce of shot, is a neat 
plaything for an experienced man, but should not be 
placed in the hands of a lady or a novice to discour- 
age them with field shooting and their ability to 
handle a gun. Such a featherweight and charge are 
not dangerous to game and not worth condemning 
except as casting reproach upon a meritorious wea- 
pon. However, when the gun is built to weigh seven 
pounds and charged with 2}i drams of powder and 
an ounce of shot, as it is in the Southwest, there is 
another story to be told. The arm and load, in 
the section named, are considered amply powerful 
for wild ducks, but the shooting is over decoys and 
not so difficult as it might be in other localities. 
Moreover adapting special guns to special uses does 
not alter the fact that logically the twenty bore is 
intended for the uplands and small game. 

The standard machine load for this gauge is 2^ 
drams of powder and % ounce of shot, and so 
loaded the maximum range of the gun is but five 
yards behind that of the twelve bore with its stand- 
ard charge, both being used with number eight shot. 
What the twelve will do at forty yards the twenty 
will at thirty-five, and ninety per cent, of upland 
game is killed under the latter distance. Ammuni- 
tion houses list twenty gauge shells with from two to 
2^ drams of powder and from ^ to ^ ounces of 
shot of various sizes. Handloaded shells are often 
filled with heavier charges for special uses in spe- 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 149 

daily built and bored guns. It is well not to experi- 
ment with extreme charges without the consent of 
the gunbuilder who should know his weapon better 
than you can. 

American twenty bore guns are constructed in 
weights of from five to seven pounds and a half; 
foreign arms are often built still lighter. The bar- 
rels are the same length as those of the sixteen, from 
twenty-six to thirty-two inches. The greatest de- 
mand is for guns weighing from six pounds to six 
pounds twelve ounces with barrels twenty-six to 
thirty inches. I am free to admit a prejudice in 
favor of long barrels on the score of balance and 
accurate holding, but assuredly a twenty-six inch 
barreled twenty bore is a better proportioned piece 
than a twelve of that length. 

For quail shooting number seven and one-half 
shot had better be replaced with eights in a twenty 
bore, the smaller shot giving a more even pattern 
and killing well up to the maximum range of the 
gun, thirty-five yards. In duck shooting the same 
size of pellets should be used as in the sixteen, no 
further reduction in size of shot being permissible 
with such game. 

The Twenty-eight Gauge 

The twenty-eight has an effective range but two 
yards behind the twenty. Up to thirty yards it will 
account for any game it is held upon from jack-snipe 



T50 TTTF AMFRTCAN SHOTGUN 

to geese. It will afford a lot of pleasure to the 
man whose shooting opportunities are many and 
whose chief enjoyment comes from a consciousness 
of accurate holding and clean work. The velocity 
of shot charge in this gauge with standard load is 
a trifle higher than any of the larger bores and 
the little weapon has always been highly praised by 
those who have tested it. A full choked twenty- 
eight will kill game at as long a range as an im- 
proved-cylinder twelve, the arm most often recom- 
mended for quail. 

The difference between a twelve and a twenty- 
eight is that long shots should not be attempted 
with the little gun, and it will not handle large shots 
effectively. The difference in the amount of game 
bagged with the twenty-eight and twelve will not 
be very great In upland shooting, provided a man is 
accustomed to shooting with a full choked gun and 
can center his bird. No finer holding Is required 
with a full choked twenty-eight than with a full 
choke of any other gauge, but the small charge will 
not bear being opened up to give spread of pattern. 

Machine loaded twenty-eight gauge cartridges are 
charged with from i ■}{]. to 2 drams of powder and 
1/2 to 5 8 ounces of shot. Two drams and 3.s ounces 
is the standard load, usually with eight shot for 
quail, though some prefer numbers nine or ten. 
Should the arm be anything but a full-choke, the 
tens might be preferable in order to thicken the 
pattern, but the small pellets are liable to send a 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 151 

good many birds away crippled. I have always se- 
cured excellent results with a high velocity charge 
in this gauge, 2% drams of powder and -14 ounce of 
shot. In a gun of sufficient weight it is deadly at 
ranges several yards greater than the standard load, 
in fact has nearly the same power as the standard 
twenty. 

The recoil of a twenty-eight is so slight that it 
can be used with comfort in very light arms. There- 
fore we find guns of this gauge built as light as four 
pounds. American built guns are of more practical 
dimensions, coming in weights of from ^}i to 6}i 
pounds. My own twenty-eight weighs near seven 
pounds with thirty inch barrels, but a shorter and 
lighter arm would please the majority. Barrel 
lengths are from twenty-six to thirty inches. 

The man who can own but one gun should not 
choose the twenty-eight, but it nicely rounds out an 
armory and will afford its own share of recreation 
and sport. 

Gun-makers' Table of Weights in Proportion 
TO Gauge and Load 

This table is Intended to give a proper load of 
shot in proportion to weight of gun for the different 
gauges. As compared with the large bores the 
small bores give a relatively higher breech pressure 
and greater recoil with the same amount of shot, 
and for this reason should be somewhat heavier 



152 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

in proportion to the load. The rule gives sixteen 
ounces of gun for every ^/g ounce of shot in a 
twenty-eight, fifteen ounces of gun to ^ ounce of 
shot in a twenty and thirteen in the twelve and 
larger bores. Of the loads and weights of guns 
given the medium ones are those in use. Here is 
the table: 

TWENTY-EIGHT GAUGE— FORMULA. 

Drams. Ounces. Weight of gun. 



Load 134 % —16 X 4 = 64 

% — 16X 5= 80 



16= 4 lbs. 

16= 5 " 

^Vs % — 16 X 6= 96h-16= 6 " 

21/4 % — 16 X 7 = 112 H- 16= 7 " 



2% 1 — 16 X 8 = 128^16= 8 " 

TWENTY GAUGE. 
Drams. Ounces. Weight of gun. 

2 % — 1.) X 4= 60-M6= 3 lbs. 12 oz. 

21/8 % —1-5 X 5 = 75 H- 16 = 4 " 11 " 

214 34 _i5 X 6 = 90 -M6 = 5 " 10 " 

2% % — 15 X 7 = 105^16= 6 " 9" 

234 1 —15 X 8 = 120 ^ 16 = 7 " 8 " 



SIXTEEN GAUGE. 
Drams. Ounces. Weight of gun. 

21/4 % —14 X 6 = 84 ^ 16 = 5 lbs. 4 oz. 

21/0 % — 14 X 7= 98^16= 6 " 2" 

23/~ 1 — 14 X 8 = 112^16= 7 " 0" 

3 1% — 14 X 9=126-M6= 7 " 14" 

314 114 — 14 X 10 =140 H- 16= 8 " 12" 



TWELVE GAUGE. 

Drams. Ounces. Weight of gun. 

— 13 X 7= 91^16= 5 lbs. 11 or. 

— 13 X 8 = 104-^16= 6 " 8" 

— 13 X 9 = 117h-16= 7 " 5" 

—13X10 = 130^-16= 8 " 2" 

— 13 X 11 = 143-M6= 8 " 15" 



SVs 


78 


2y4 


1 


3 


iVs 


3% 


1% 


4 


1% 



GAUGES AND CHARGES 153 



TEN GAUGE. 

Drams. Ounces. Weight of gun. 
3 1 — l.S X 8=104^16= 6 lbs. 802. 

3% li/s — 13 X 9 = 117 -M6= 7 " 11" 

4 11/4 —13X10 = 130-^16= 8 " 2" 

4i/> 1% —13X11 = 143^-16= 8 " 15" 

5" ly. -13X12 = 156-^16= 9 " 12" 

EIGHT GAUGE. 

Drams. Ounces. Weight of gun. 

5 11/0 -13X13 = 156^-16= 9 lbs. 12 oz. 

5% 1% —13 X 13 = 169 ^ 16 = 10 " 9 " 

6~ 1% —13X14=182^16 = 11 " 6" 

61/0 17/8 —13 X 15=195 -f- 16 = 12 " 3" 

7 " 2 —13X16 = 208-1-16 = 13" 0" 



CHAPTER XI 
CHOKES, PATTERNS, AND VELOCITIES 

BORING shotguns has reached its present state 
of perfection, if we are permitted to call 
it such, through a process of evolution. A 
decade or so ago all sorts of artifices for throwing 
shot in a closer mass were called chokes, though 
some of them meant a freeing of the muzzle, others 
a recess or two recesses where the shot charge 
spread and was then contracted. There were recess- 
chokes, bell-chokes, multiple-chokes, jug-chokes, and 
at last taper-chokes. Some of these styles were fair- 
ly effective, others were effective temporarily, and 
others are in use at the present time. To-day man- 
ufacturers have settled upon methods of choking 
their barrels so similar that results in all our best 
arms are practically equal. 

Many gunbuilders claim that their barrels are a 
true taper-choke, the natural inference being that 
the bore tapers evenly from breech to muzzle, de- 
pending for close shooting qualities upon the grad- 
ual contraction of the charge. The theoretical taper- 
choke appeals to the gun buyer who does not like 

154 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 155 

the idea of suddenly upsetting and jamming his 
charge with a probabihty of leading his gun. The- 
oretically the taper-choke is perfect, but I doubt if 
it would work at all in practice, and neither have 
I ever been able to find a gun that had it despite 
all the claims of manufacturers. 

My own belief is that a tube with an even taper 
from breech to muzzle so that the load could adjust 
itself as it passed out would shoot little if any closer 
than a plain cylinder. Choke boring, as will pres- 
ently appear, depends for its efficacy upon jamming 
the shot together at the muzzle with such force that 
they will cling together in a mass for some distance 
after they leave the gun. A gradual contraction, 
such as a true taper from breech to muzzle, would 
not have this effect. 

Full choked guns are constricted at the muzzle 
from twenty to forty thousandths of an inch, de- 
pending upon the gauge. As might reasonably be 
expected, the smaller the bore of the gun the less 
it will bear being contracted at the muzzle. In the 
present styles of choking some barrels are bored 
cylindrical to within a few inches of the muzzle 
and there contracted, others are freed about the 
middle of the barrel and thence gradually narrowed 
toward the muzzle where they have the usual choke. 
Manufacturers are very reluctant about giving the 
inside measurements of their barrels, perhaps con- 
sidering such figures trade secrets. 

The writer has often speculated and theorized as 



156 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

to just what process a charge of shot undergoes 
from the time it starts at the breech until it separates 
into individual pellets. It would seem, looking at 
the matter cursorily, that a true cylinder shotgun, 
sending every pellet from the muzzle in a straight 
line, with the least possible disturbance of the load, 
would shoot the closest. So it would, possibly, ex- 
cept that as soon as they leave the muzzle every 
individual pellet begins turning and twisting, giving 
every contiguous shot a figurative kick out of the 
way. They kick one another until they become scat- 
tered too far apart, and by that time every separate 
pellet is going its own course at a distinct angle from 
every other until when they reach the forty yard 
target the pattern is six feet across. Indeed I have 
seen the outer pellets fifteen feet apart at the dis- 
tance. 

Now what is the reason the pellets from a full 
choked gun do not begin to squirm and kick one an- 
other the moment they leave the muzzle? When 
you have fully decided this point you will know more 
of the secret behavior of the shot charge of a choke 
bored gun than anybody has been able to tell us 
heretofore. Some claim that in some mysterious 
way when the choke pinches the load to- 
gether, the shot are set to crossing one another, 
those lying on the right side of the charge crossing 
to the left and vice versa. At a certain distance 
these theorists assert that the pellets begin to cross 
out and thenceforth the pattern of a choke bore is 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 157 

no closer than that of a cylinder. In support of this 
"crossing-out" theory they point to the fact that a 
full choked gun puts perhaps eighty-five per cent of 
its charge in a fifteen inch circle at twenty yards 
which may be reduced to 65 per cent at forty yards 
in a thirty inch circle. 

Another school holds that the shot-charge is elon- 
gated in passing through the choke, the forward pel- 
lets having their speed accelerated, the shot flying 
toward the target in a long string in place of a 
round pattern. It has been proved by the simple ex- 
periment of shooting at a rapidly turning wheel that 
shot do string out as much as sixteen feet in going 
one hundred and twenty. So positive are the string- 
ing out people of the correctness of their theory 
that they go so far as to gravely advise the gunner 
to hold plenty far enough ahead of his game for, if 
the leading pellets miss, the bird will fly into this 
sixteen-foot string somewhere and surely get killed. 

My own belief is that the pellets from a choked 
gun do not begin kicking and scattering the moment 
they leave the tube for the same reason that they 
would not if enclosed in a concentrator; they are 
encased in a leaden shell of their ozvn outer pellets 
which have been dented and welded together by 
the choke of the gun. The greater the choke in the 
barrels the firmer this outer shell of shot is welded, 
and the longer it requires to break up with a conse- 
quent closer shooting gun. Let me give some proofs 
that this theory is at least reasonable and better ac- 



158 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

counts for the behavior of a charge of shot from a 
full choked gun than any other that has come to my 
knowledge. 

It is an undisputed fact that every time a charge 
of shot is fired from a full choked gun thirty per 
cent, of the load is at once knocked out and rendered 
useless for the reason that this percentage of the 
pellets are so dented and deformed that they will 
not fly true and so fail to reach the target with the 
remainder of the charge. The longer the range the 
more erratic the flight of these defective shot and as 
a consequence the gun falls off in its pattern from 
fifteen to twenty per cent. These deformed pellets 
also account sufficiently for shot-stringing since many 
of them are so flattened as to retard their flight. 
But this does not mean that the body of the charge, 
the seventy per cent, of sound pellets, is also string- 
ing and I have no doubt but that they reach the tar- 
get practically in a body. Defective and misshapen 
pellets entirely account for crossing and "shooting- 
out," the reduced patterns of choke bores at long 
range, and for stringing of the shot. 

Careful experiments have been made by expert 
gun-borers to see if they could not invent some sys- 
tem of choking a gun that would utilize this thirty 
per cent, of the charge which is now wasted. They 
were well aware that in case this could be done the 
twenty bore would become as powerful as the present 
twelve for the reason that the entire charge would 
be found in the pattern in place of the seventy per 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 159 

cent, which is .ow the best that can be uniformly 
secured. No success has attended these experi- 
ments for the reason that this thirty per cent, is the 
amount of shot necessary to form the shell of lead 
without which no gun could shoot a choke-bore pat- 
tern. From this it is to be inferred that an entirely 
new system of chokeboring will be necessary before 
this thirty per cent, of waste shot can be rendered 
available. Should the new system ever come it will 
be the greatest of all shotgun inventions. 

The theory of a lead encased charge being true, 
it is to be expected that if the gun were given too 
much choke, or the shot were driven at too high vel- 
ocity into the choke, the leaden shell would weld too 
firmly and fail to break up at the proper time or 
possibly not at all. We find this to be the case 
exactly. Guns that are over-choked "ball" the shot, 
a technical way of saying that part of the shell welds 
so firmly that it will not break up. Costly experiences 
have so well convinced the manufacturers of this 
that they now wisely refuse to attempt to turn out 
a gun choked closer than the usual seventy per cent. 
It is this welding and balling of the shot also that is 
now handicapping the gunbuilders in their attempt 
to turn out high velocity shotguns. If the charge 
is given a few hundred feet increased muzzle veloci- 
ty above the present standard, the shot will ball in 
a choke bore, and the pellets in the opener guns will 
kick one another so much harder that the pattern is 
invariably ruined. 



i6o THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

It is evident that soft shot would be more sub- 
ject to the welding process than chilled, and so we 
find that soft shot are never recommended for high- 
pressure loads in a choke-bore gun. Granted that 
it is necessary for a full choked gun to jam the 
shot and weld a case, then if the shot were so 
hardened that they could not dent into one another, 
no closer pattern could be obtained from a choke 
bore than from a cylinder. Experiments with steel 
shot have proved this to be an exact statement of 
the truth for they will not make any closer pattern 
in a choked barrel than one bored cylinder. 

It was supposed that steel pellets might place the 
entire charge within the thirty inch because none of 
them would be upset, but instead they scattered like 
shot from a rifle barrel. What has been said of 
full chokes applies to any modification, though in less 
degree. 

Evenness of Pattern 

While full choked guns with the closest pattern 
are necessary for some purposes, as trap shooting 
and work on ducks, and the development of choke- 
boring has added greatly to the power of all shot- 
guns, yet it is a comparatively simple matter to se- 
cure these dense patterns compared with obtaining 
an even spread of the shot. In this respect gunbuild- 
ers have made very small progress this past twenty 
years, their patterns being little if any more even 
than those of the old muzzle-loaders. 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VETOCTTTES i6i 



The diagram shows a forty yard target of 260 
shot, that of a modified choke twelve gauge, drawn 
to indicate what an ideal shotgun pattern should be. 
Owing to its regularity this modified pattern would 
be more effective than that of any full choke of 300 
shot such as we can now obtain from the most care- 
fully bored guns. Nothing coulci escape such a shot 
charge as this from quail to clay-birds, and neither 
would it tear up and riddle the game in the manner 
of many close 
shooting guns. 
Patchy patterns 
lead to a gun muti 
lating one bird anci 
missing the next at 
a like distance, for 
if one spot has a 
dense clump of shot 
another must be 
open. 

Close shooting or 

density of pattern From a modified choke, showing an 
r ideaHzed evenness of pattern 

is a mere matter or * 

correct mechanics, but with our present skill in 
gunboring uniformity is in a degree dependent 
on luck, for the most skilled gunborer, cutting his 
tube to the exact thousandth of an inch, cannot fore- 
see with any certainty that his barrel is going to 
make an even spread. He can, however, usually 
much improve the shooting of a barrel by carefully 




102 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



retouching it, but no matter what the experience of 
the mechanic he can never make two barrels that 
will pattern exactly alike, and it follows that only 
on rare occasions is a perfect shooting barrel turned 
out. This explains why our great trapshots may try 
fifty guns before finding one that patterns up to the 
standard they require, and why when such a piece 
is obtained it is considered invaluable. 

The acme of perfection in shotgun boring is to 
secure an even spread of shot in a close shooting, 
full choke gun, because, as we have seen, the very 
principle of choke boring promotes patchiness rather 
than uniformity. In my own experience I have al- 
ways had the best luck in securing a regular spread 
from guns modified a trifle, say those making a 
target of from 60 to 65 per cent of the charge. 
Nevertheless there is no arm that I should appre- 
ciate so highly as the full seventy per cent barrel 
that uniformly covered the thirty inch circle. 

Every new gun ought to be tested and the pattern 
analyzed before purchasing. The plate shows the 
method of doing this. Mark off the target into 
squares of a size dependent upon the game to be 
killed and diameter of the shot pellets; for quail 
with number seven and one-half or eight shot, three 
inch squares, for ducks, four inch. Count three shot 
as the number necessary to kill with certainty and 
less as a cripple, no shot in the square, a miss. 
Analyze several targets and if on the average at 
forty yards twenty-five per cent, of the squares indi- 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 163 



cate misses or cripples reject the gun. If you can 
obtain a gun that will not miss or cripple once in 
ten shots at the distance it is an extraordinary wea- 
pon. 

The faults of choke-bore guns are shooting too 
much to center and patchy patterns. Cylinder and 
slightly choked guns are apt to throw variable pat- 
terns, one perhaps 
containing two 
hundred shot and 
the next a hundred 
and thirty. It is 
more difficult to 
get a round pat- 
tern too with a cyl- 
inder gun, since 
very frequently 
they string the shot 

up and down or in ,, ,, , , , . ^^ ^. 

^ . Method of analyzing- a pattern. Cir- 

SOme Other direc- cle 2^ inches in diameter, squares four 

T7 ^ . 1 inches. Full squares show six cripples, 

tion. ILVeiy oar- ,^q misses. Would be effective on 

rel needs to be f^^^ks up to fifty yards. 

tested carefully whether it is choked or cylinder 
for some develop one fault and others another. Not 
infrequently a tube may place the bulk of its shot 
high, leaving the lower half of the circle thinly cov- 
ered or the reverse. I have seen some guns fill 
up one corner densely with load after load to the 
detriment of the remainder of the target. 

Guns may pattern better with one size of shot 





A- 




*. 


> 




,^ 




/ 




♦ 




> 


♦ * > 


s 

* 


K 


1* 


♦ ♦ 


♦ 




> 


* * 
Ir 


k 


A 


1 + 


*>* 


* * 

* * 


^ J' 


-^ **, 

>\:^ 




•0 


* 


\ *■ 


4- 
* ♦ 


;■•: 


t *^ 






* k 




\ 


ir 

* 


^ K 






k* 

* ^k 


* 
* 


/ 


N 




* 


:^: 




k 
kr 




/ 




^ 


It 


k 


4- _ 


+ 


y 





i64 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

or load of powder than another, so it is well to 
experiment with the arm until its strong points and 
idiosyncracies are fully understood. 

Guns may have any degree of choke from full to 
a plain cylinder, but for purposes of comparison and 
illustration we will adopt the factory terms of full- 
choke, or 70 per cent., half-choke or 60 per cent., 
quarter-choke or 50 per cent., improved cylinder or 
40 per cent., plain-cylinder or 30 per cent. The 
illustration shows the size of circle in which these 
various degrees of choke throw their patterns. For 
practical purposes barrels should be given a degree 
of choke dependent first upon the use for which 
they are intended, second the skill of the user, and 
third the gauge. 

In calculating the degree of choke you would place 
in your gun barrels, do away with all preconceived 
notions as to the close shooting of small bores, for 
every gun of whatever gauge shoots into precisely 
the same size of circle if given a like amount of 
choke. Every full choked gun from an eight to a 
twenty-eight will pattern with its 70 per cent, into 
circle i, or the thirty inch, half chokes into circle 2, 
quarter into 3, and so on. This has been proved 
beyond any possibility of question and every manu- 
facturer will confirm it. 

The use you would make of your gun should be 
governed by its power, and power is directly depend- 
ent upon pattern or the number of shot that can 
regularly be placed in the game. Of course this 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 165 

statement might be modified by the velocity of the 
charge, but in standard loads velocities of all gauges 
are so nearly equal that at present we can leave 
velocity out of the question and consider power as 
a simple matter of pattern and size of shot. 




Size of circle in which various degrees of choke of any gauge 
will throw their pattern 

Certain kinds of work, either at the traps or in 
the field, necessitate a given amount of power, and 
power is pattern. All guns, whatever their gauge, 
that pattern 300 are of like power, other things 



1 66 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

being equal. This 300 target is considered the min- 
imum for a reliable weapon to be used at the trap 
or on wildfowl, and it can only be secured in twelve 
and larger bores. It follows that as now bored no 
gun smaller than a twelve is quite powerful enough 
for trap and duck shooting. However, a sixteen 
will target 280 shot with its ordinary charge of an 
ounce or with an ounce and a sixteenth will reach 
the required 300, and we therefore find it fairly 
deadly on wildfowl. 

Guns smaller than sixteen should be confined to 
the uplands. This 300 pattern will cut up quail con- 
siderably or any game that is shot at distances below 
thirty yards, and is therefore rather a special pur- 
pose than a general service arm. 

For an all-round gun, a weapon excellent on wild- 
fowl and the trap and unexcelled elsewhere, I should 
incline to favor a pattern of from 250 to 275 shot. 
This can be secured from a half-choked twelve or a 
full choked sixteen. A target of 245 shot is obtain- 
able from the twenty bore and therefore it will do 
on a pinch should the owner be confined to the one 
gun. Nevertheless a man will find himself handi- 
capped considerably who is obliged to shoot ducks 
or face the traps with a light twenty bore. 

Patterns of from 225 to 250 are strictly for the 
uplands where they will safely account for every 
species of game up to thirty-five yards or more. 
Twelve gauges 50 per cent, or quarter chokes, will 
afford this target and half choked sixteens or full 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 167 

choked twenties. Either of these arms, bored as 
given, are perfectly capable of accomplishing every- 
thing required of an upland gun, 

A pattern of 200 shot is about as light as a sports- 
man can use Avithout undue cruelty through crippling 
game. It is only adapted to the uplands and will be 
found much more deadly on quail and partridge than 
on other birds. It is not a safe load beyond thirty 
to thirty-three yards. This target can be obtained 
from an improved cylinder twelve, a quarter choked 
sixteen, a half choked twenty, and a full choked 
twenty-eight, any one of which is a very good quail 
gun, though requiring different degrees of skill to 
handle them effectively. 

Short range guns, or those with patterns of less 
than 200 shot, have been used on quail and are very 
effective in the brush, but there is a constant tempta- 
tion to use them at ranges longer than the pattern 
warrants, as a consequence pricking and wounding 
a great many birds that go away to die. 

Keeping in mind that even for the uplands the 
lowest permissible pattern is 200, it will be apparent 
that really small bore like the twenty and the twenty- 
eight should never be modified below a half choke 
which would cover thirty-six inches at forty yards. 
If you are unable to place a circle of shot of this 
diameter on your game be content to shoot a larger 
bore that will permit a further modifying without 
sacrificing deadliness to an unsportsmanlike extent. 

It is hardly necessary to mention here a proceed- 



1 68 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

ing that would naturally be followed by most men, 
that of using one pattern or degree of choke for 
the right barrel and a closer one for the left. In a 
twelve gauge a half-choke for the first barrel and 
full for the second makes a more killing duck gun 
in the hands of any one but an expert than to have 
both barrels full choked. I have observed also that 
a pattern of 225 for the first barrel and 275 for 
the second is about the right thing for the average 
man in the uplands. The principle of different de- 
grees of choke for either barrel applies to all 
gauges except the trap gun and the twenty-eight, 
both of which should be used in full choke only. 

Here are some patterns of ten, twelve, sixteen, 
twenty, and twenty-eight gauge with standard loads 
in numbers eight, seven and one-half, seven, and six 
shot, full choke, half-choke, quarter-choke, improved 
cylinder, and plain cylinder. 



FULL CHOKE (70 PER CENT. OF CHARGE), NUMBER 
EIGHT SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, I14 ounces 8 shot, pattern 350. 

12 " '■ " li/s " 8 " " 315. 

16 " " "1 "8 " " 280. 

20 " " " % " 8 " ^ " 245. 

28 " " " 34 " 8 " " 210. 

SEVEN AND ONE-HALF SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, ly^ ounces ly^ shot, pattern 301. 

12 " " " IVs " 714 " ■ " 271. 

16 " " " 1 " 71/3 " " 241. 

20 " " " Vs " 71/3 " " ■• 211. 

28 " " " % " 71/2 " " 181. 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 169 



SEVEX SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, 1 '/4 ounces 7 shot, pattern 234. 

12 " " " IVs " 7 " " 228. 

16 " . " "1 "7 " " 196. 

20 " " " 7/8 " 7 " " 178. 

28 " " " % " 7 " " 153. 

SIX SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, 11^4 ounces fi shot, pattern 190. 

12 •• " " I'/s '• 6 '• " 171. 

16 " " "1 "6 " " 152. 

20 " •' " ■% " 6 " " 133. 

28 " " " 34 " 6 " " 114. 

HALF CHOKE (SIXTY PER CENT. OF CHARGE) NUM- 
BER EIGHT SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, II/4 ounces 8 shot, pattern 300. . 

12 '• •■ " li/s " 8 ■■ " 270. 

16 " " "1 "8 " " 240. 

20/ " " " % " 8 " " 210. 

28' " " " % " 8 " " 180. 

SEVEN AND ONE-HAI,F SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, I14 ounces 7y., shot, pattern 2(50. 

12 " " " 1% '• 71/0 " " 233. 

16 " " " 1 " 71/3 " " 207. 

20 " " >■ % " 71/2 " " 181. 

28 " " " 3/4 " 71/3 " " 155. 

SEVEN SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, I'/j ounces 7 shot, pattern 217. 

12 " •• •• li/s " ^ '■ " 196. 

16 " " "1 "7 " " 174. 

20 " " " Ys " 7 " " 152. 

28- " " " 3/4 " 7 " " 130. 

SIX SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, 11,4 ounces 6 shot, pattern 163. 

12 "'••'*. " " 1% " 6 " " 147. 

16 " " " 1 " 6 " " 130. 

20 -" " " •% " 6 " " 114. 

28 " . " " % " 6 " " 98. 



I70 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



QUARTER CHOKE (50 PER CENT. OF CHARGE), NUM- 
BER EIGHT SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, ll^ ounces 8 shot, pattern 250. 

12 " " " li/g " 8 " " 225. 

16 " " "1 "8 " " 200. 

20 " " " % " 8 " " 175. 

28 " " " % " 8 " " 150. 

SEVEN AND ONE-HALF SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, li/4 ounces 7y, shot, pattern 216. 

12 " " " 1% " 7y; " " 194. 

16 " " " 1 " 71/2 " " 172. 

20 " " " 78 " ^V2 " " 150. 

28 " " " % " 71/2 " " 128. 

SEVEN SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, ly^ ounces 7 shot, pattern 181. 

12 " " " 1% " 7 " " 162. 

16 " " "1 "7 " " 145. 

20 " " " ■% " 7 " " 127. 

28 " " " % " 7 " " 109. 

SIX SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, 1 14 ounces 6 shot, pattern 136. 

12 " " " li/s " 6 " " 122. 

16 " " "1 "6 " " 109. 

20 " " " % " 6 " " 95. 

28 " " " % " 6 " " 81. 

IMPROVED CYLINDER (FORTY PER CENT. OF 
CHARGE), NUMBER EIGHT SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, l^i ounces 8 shot, pattern 200. 

12 " " " li/s " 8 " " 180. 

16 " " "1 "8 " " 160. 

20 " " " % " 8 " " 140. 

28 " " " % " 8 " " 120. 

SEVEN AND ONE-HALF SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, I14 ounces 7% shot, pattern 171. 

12 ' IVs " ^Vs " " 154. 

16 " " " 1 " 71/2 " " 138. 

20 " " " % " 71/2 " " 120. 

28 " " " % " 71/2 " " 102. 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 171 



SEVEN SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, \Y^ ounces 7 shot, jiattern 145. 

12 " " " 1% " 7 " " 130. 

16 " " "1 "7 " " llf). 

20 " " " % " 7 " " 102. 

28 " " " 3/^ " T " " 87. 

SIX SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, ly,^ ounces 6 shot, pattern 108. 

12 " " " IVs " 6 " ■' 9!^- 

16 " " " 1 " 6 " " 87. 

20 " " " % " 6 " " 76. 

28 " " " % " 6 " " 65. 

PLAIN CYLINDER (THIRTY PER CENT. OF CHARGE), 
NUMBER EIGHT SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, 11^4 ounces, 8 shot, pattern 150. 

12 " " " li/s " 8 " " 135. 

16 " " "1 "8 " " 120. 

20 " " " % " 8 " " 105. 

28 " " " % " 8 " " 90. 

SEVEN AND ONE-HALF SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, li/i ounces 71/3 shot, pattern 129. 

12 " " " IVs " 7% " " 116. 

16 " " " 1 " 7% " " 103. 

20 " " " % " 7% " " 90. 

28 " " " 34 " 71/2 " " 77. 

SEVEN SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, li/i ounces, 7 shot, pattern 108. 

12 " " " 1% " 7 '• '• 98. 

16 " " "1 "7 " " 87. 

20 " " " % " 7 " " 76. 

28 " " " % " 7 " " 65. 

SIX SHOT. 

10 gauge, standard load, 1^/^ ounces 6 shot, pattern 81. 

12 u u u jy^ a g .. u ^3 

16 " " "1 "6 " " 65. 

20 " " " % " 6 " " 57. 

28 " " " % " 6 " " 49. 



172 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

Some deductions can readily be made from these 
patterns. The larger bores have the greatest power 
for either one of two reasons, in any size of shot 
they make the denser pattern or they will place as 
many shot of one size in the target, say seven and 
one-half, as the nekt narrower gauge will eights. 
Every time you open the pattern of your gun one 
degree you in effect reduce the power to that of the 
next gauge lower. Reduce the choke of a twelve to 
sixty per cent and you have in range and power 
only a sixteen gauge; reduce it to a quarter choke 
and the range drops to that of a twenty; still further 
open the twelve to an improved cylinder and you 
have a weapon of like power and range with the 
twenty-eight. 

Select the maximum range at which you have de- 
termined your gun must kill regularly — we will call 
it thirty-five yards — , a pattern of 225 to 250 will 
accomplish the work, and you can secure the re- 
quired effectiveness from a twenty full choke, a six- 
teen half choke, or a twelve quarter choke. The 
principle should always be remembered that every 
time you widen the pattern you reduce the range. 
To make this plainer when you spread the pattern 
six inches, that is from a full choke to a half choke, 
you shorten the killing range three yards. Reckon- 
ing thus, a full choked twelve will be as effective at 
forty yards as a plain cylinder twelve will at twenty- 
five. Opening the pattern of a twenty to a straight 
cylinder will reduce its range from thirty-five to 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 173 

twenty yards, and no shotgun is a practical weapon 
that will not kill regularly with one barrel or the 
other up to at least thirty yards. 

Shot Velocities 

The average gunner is liable to consider the flight 
of a charge of shot from gun to game as instantane- 
ous, like the negro's "smoke wagon", "when it starts 
it's thar," but science comes along with facts that 
are not to be denied. In standard loads number 
seven shot flies over a forty yard course at the rate 
of 850 feet a second, and during the time the pellets 
are on the way a speedy sprinter would move over 
four feet and be entirely out of danger. If the shot 
charge was in the shape of a great black ball we 
could watch it move up to and strike the target. At 
the two hundred yard butts the writer has often 
curiously observed the bullets in their flight to the 
target, noted their curve at a little past mid-range, 
and could tell within a few inches of where the lead 
would land — this was rendered possible by the burn- 
ing lubricant on the missile which left behind a faint 
blue smoke. 

The matter of speed of flight in birds will be 
treated later, but at present it is suflScient to say that 
some species of wildfowl get up a speed only six 
times slower than that of the shot charge. Keeping 
this in mind, we can better appreciate the necessity 
for the utmost practicable velocity of shot, not only 



174 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

for the reason that less allowance would have to 
be made for rapidly flying birds, but because pene- 
tration on game is directly dependent on velocity. 

As has been hinted in a previous chapter, shot 
could be given a much higher velocity than is now 
the standard, and many progressive sportsmen are 
demanding such ammunition. Gunbuilders and 
cartridge firms are busily experimenting with a view 
to meeting this demand some time in the future. 
They are very reluctant to change the standard 
velocity of their cartridges, however, because they 
are now regulated scientifically to suit our present 
systems of shotgun boring. If shot charges are to 
be given a higher velocity, then gunbuilders must 
set the pace by inventing some new system of bor- 
ing that will permit a high rate of progress of shot 
through their tubes without ruining the pattern. 

The standard velocity of shotgun charges has 
been fixed at 1,050 feet over a twenty-yard course, 
and much experimenting has led the cartridge peo- 
ple to conclude that this is about the highest velocity 
consistent with even and regular patterns. To be 
sure, many guns wall malce a good target with a 
higher velocity charge, but others will not and the 
manufacturers are forced to remember the weakest 
link in the chain. Nevertheless higher velocity 
charges will come some time because they are pos- 
sible, and since they would greatly simplify the prob- 
lems of wingshooting the demand for them will be- 
come insistent. 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 175 

Manufacturers endeavor to give all their loads 
of whatever gauge and size of shot approximately 
the same initial velocity; when the shot charge is 
reduced they load a less amount of powder to 
correspond. Of course the large shot retain their 
speed for a longer time, the difference in speed of 
number ones and tens at forty yards being 175 
feet. This does not mean that the larger shot 
would be a hundred and seventy-five feet in advance 
of the smaller, but the big pellets would be eighteen 
to twenty feet in advance, and when they might 
strike the game the small shot would pass behind. 
All of which emphasizes, not only the need of a 
high muzzle velocity, but also the use of a size 
of shot which will retain this velocity to the great- 
est extent up to the maximum range. 

Taking sevens, or pigeon shot, as a basis for cal- 
culating velocities, we find that with a mean velocity 
of 1,050 feet over the first twenty yards of the 
course, this has fallen to 850 feet at forty yards, 
and 750 at fifty yards. Experiments have proved 
that it takes a velocity of 750 feet to kill live 
pigeons with seven shot and nearly as much for 
quail. We could therefore fix upon fifty yards as 
the limit of range for seven shot whatever the 
gauge or load, though of course they might occa- 
sionally kill at longer distances through luckily strik- 
ing a vital part. Number eight shot could only 
retain this necessary 750 feet of killing velocity up 
to forty-five yards which could be fixed as the maxi- 



176 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

mum range of eights. Smaller shot would be still 
more restricted down to thirty yards for number 
ten shot on quail. Duck shot, sixes and fives, should 
maintain a killing penetration up to sixty yards. 

Naturally the larger the shot, the greater their 
execution even with like velocities, which would lead 
to the inference that relatively large shot should be 
used in all instances, and so they should except for 
the absolute necessity of maintaining a sufficient 
density of pattern. A rifle bullet is more deadly 
than any size of shot, yet is perfectly useless in wing- 
shooting, for in order to kill you must first hit. It 
is usually considered that three shot or more are 
essential to a kill, the chances being that one of 
them will reach a vital spot and produce instant 
death. Less than this number may mean a cripple, 
no matter what the size of shot or its velocity and 
hence we must not sacrifice pattern even to secure 
increased penetration. 

As has been shown, the size of the shot has much 
to do with both its velocity over the range and kill- 
ing power, but the maximum size of shot that can 
be used is limited by the gauge of our gun and the 
way it is bored. The futility of shooting large shot 
in small gauges, open bored, is shown in the diagram 
where three-quarter ounce of four shot is driven at 
a velocity high enough to kill, but with only a re- 
mote possibility of striking the bird with enough 
pellets. 

With all this we return to the original proposi- 



CHOKES, PATTERNS, VELOCITIES 177 



tion of large shot, big bores, and heavy charges as 
being necessary to execution at long range. The 
prime factors of power are : pattern, velocity, and 
size of shot. We might reverse the order and say 
that the size of the shot which it will handle ef- 
fectively limits the twelve bore to fifty yards, the 
sixteen to forty-five, the twenty to forty. 

Progress in gun- 
boring has now 
reached a stand- 
still from the fact 
noted that pat- 
terns cannot be 
maintained with 
charges much in 
excess of the stan- 
dard 1,050 feet 
over a twenty-yard 
range. If this dif- 
ficulty can be over- Shows the futility of shooting large 

romp nnd shot criv- ^^^"^ '" ■'^"^''*"' open-liored gauges. Left 
come ana snot gl\- ^-^^^^ pattern of eight gauge, full-choke, 

en a speed several forty yards; right, twenty gauge cyl- 

h, 1 r I • I inder ; same size shot. 

undred leet high- 
er than Is at present possible, power will at once be 
greatly augmented, the sixteen becoming as effective 
as the present twelve and so on. 

It is not believed that any permanent limit has 
been reached In the boring of shotguns, or that some 
system of boring will not finally be developed that 
will permit high velocities while still retaining and 







^— - 














y 


r" 


" r 


♦ 


J< 




♦^ 


X 






/< 


♦ 


f 4 


* 






+ 


+ 


s 


K 




/ 


/ 




♦ 


t 


K 


r 




+ 




\ 


/ 


♦ 


» * 


+* 


K " 


-X 




\ 








\ 


* 




V 




■ T 




\ 


\- 




+ 








r 


r * 


♦ 

V 


♦ 














♦ 


\ 


♦ 


f *• 


•«■ 


« 


* ^ 






\ 




* 


/ 


\ 


\* 


♦ 


* 


* » 




+ 


t 




+ 


/ 


/ 






s 


•r 


•c 






-¥ 


. 


/ 






M 




Ar 


Jr 


Ar 


*. 




y 





178 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

even improving patterns. The matter is in the 
hands of sportsmen who can stimulate ingenuity by 
making their wants known. As one manufacturer 
puts it, we do not make more powerful weapons 
because the present output is good enough and 
meets every demand. But that is neither progress 
nor history. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE CARE OF THE GUN 

NOTHING so surely betrays the village would- 
be-sport, the city bum on a rampage, the 
country ne'er do well loafing about the 
fields, as an old, rusty gun. Whatever the gunner's 
knowledge of shooting, be he novice or expert, he 
can at least have his hunting arm in good condition. 
Many a man, who must, perforce, wear standing 
collars all week and two on Sundays, prefers 
old clothes in the woods, though to my mind 
this is a mistake, for clean and beautiful game like 
quail and deer deserve other things in keeping. But 
whatever excuse the sportsman may find for an un- 
kempt appearance, he can have none for an ill kept 
gun. 

An old gun that has seen long and strenuous 
service yet is free of rust, with well oiled stock and 
locks ringing only the clearer for the mellowing of 
time, is one of the proper sources of a sportsman's 
pride. Moreover the man who takes care of his 
gun will learn to shoot it, because the brains and 
application that lead to one result will compass the 

179 



i8o THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

other. Sporting writers have a fondness for com- 
paring the work of a rank beginner and his new 
gun with some old rusty firelock in the hands of a 
veteran, the natural inference from this being that 
it requires a corroded, powder-burnt old piece to kill 
game. All this is merely second-hand wit that has 
been passed along as being too funny to lose. 

Shooting is a great sport, one of the finest in 
the world, and should not be disgraced by the use 
of poor tools. Bicycles and their sprucely dressed 
riders were a picturesque feature of our country 
roads at one time, but the machine rapidly lost favor 
when the country boy, tying' a shoestring about the 
bottoms of his blue overalls, began taking the place 
of the red sweater and golf stocking brigade. Dress 
baseball players in the clothing of a greasy machin- 
ist and even that game would be killed in a few 
years. 

The man, and emphatically the woman, who will 
not dress smartly afield has no business there; they 
are a disgrace to the game they pursue and a blot 
on the glowing autumn foliage. Secure as handsome 
an outfit as can be afforded, therefore, including the 
gun, and then take care of the weapon, such care 
that it will become only handsomer with age and 
use. This chapter is strictly for the tyro, with in- 
tent to instruct him in the due care of his arm. Lec- 
turing the older hand, who knows how but will not, 
is, in the words of the lamented Peter Cartwright, 
"no better than preaching psalms to a dead horse." 



CARE OF THE GUN i8i 

In the first place remember that a gun is bought 
to be used, and is not to be considered too fine to 
withstand any sort of weather that the shooter him- 
self is willing to hazard. I can recall an old Dutch- 
man who stopped to wipe the rain drops from his 
new Greener gun until his dog, becoming impatient, 
flushed the bevy it was standing. Then the German 
threw his gun down in the mud to whip the dog. 
Your most costly gun ought to stand up under the 
hardest use if it is cared for at the proper time, and 
that time is always at the end of the day's work. 
Neither should there be one gun for actual service 
and another to rest in the cabinet and look pretty. 

A gentleman's clothes always look well. The 
business man shaves as regularly as he eats break- 
fast. The hardest campaign doesn't prevent a West 
Pointer from creasing his trousers every time he 
has a chance to pull them off, and the sportsman 
should never allow his gun to go over night with 
burnt powder in it. No matter how tired he may 
be, the gun must be cleaned before he can sleep 
with any sort of an easy conscience. 

The process is simple, and five minutes will do 
the trick perfectly. The ordinary proceeding is to 
run two or three flannel or canton flannel rags 
through the barrels, followed by some description 
of a scratch brush to loosen the lead; then another 
clean rag, and lastly the oiler. If too much oil has 
been left in the barrels run a dry rag through them 
in the morning before beginning to shoot. Having 



I82 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



finished the inside, go over the outside with an oiled 
rag, removing all traces of moisture, even that 
which may have been left by the fingers in handling 
the arm. The whole process should require little 
more time than pulling off and putting on the shoes. 
When the practice of cleaning the arm every night 
while it is in use becomes habitual it will no longer 
be considered irksome, neither will the piece pit or 
rust even when shot over salt water. 

When forced to tramp through the rain, or should 
the barrels become wet in other ways, and you are 
not in a position to clean the gun at once, shoot the 
water out. Occasionally refuge may be taken in 
some house where there are no facilities for clean- 
ing the gun, and in that case fire a couple of shells 
through the barrels before entering, and again at 
night just before retiring if the gun cannot be cleaned 
in some other way. 

Prevention is better than cure, but if rust has 
been allowed to form in the tubes, never rest until 
it comes out. Like the farmer's crops, rust grows 
while you sleep, unless you kill it. Several firms 
are making rust removers as well as rust preventa- 
tives, and some of these will be found to facilitate 
the removal of the deposits. A good wire scratch 
brush and plenty of rubbing will always be found 
effective unless the pits are of long standing and 
very deep. It might then be necessary to take the 
arm to a gunsmith, but I always do this with re- 



CARE OF THE GUN 183 

luctance, since he Is liable to run a cutting tool 
through the barrels, thus altering the pattern. 

The following implements should always be car- 
ried on shooting trips: a good strong, jointed rod, 
preferably of brass, a four or six row wire scratch 
brush or some contrlA-ance that will take its place 
and a felt oiler together with a bottle of oil. Never 
put oil into the barrels until you are sure every bit 
of moisture has been removed. Otherwise the oil 
will collect In spots, leaving the water to work its 
will with the steel. With the first series of dry 
rags rub so briskly as to produce considerable fric- 
tion; when the barrels begin to heat you can be sure 
that they are dry Inside. 

Where rust forms persistently, as It will in some 
climates, it Is desirable to use heavier oils than ordi- 
nary sperm or petroleum products. This applies 
especially where the weapon may be set aside for 
some time; then I have never found anything better 
than heavy black machine oil of a kind almost simi- 
lar to that used in lubricating automobiles. I have 
never known one of my guns to rust when thorough- 
ly coated with this black oil after being well cleaned, 
for It absolutely prevents the air from coming In 
contact with the polished steel. My own practice at 
the close of the season is to wipe out and oil the 
arm as usual, then set It away for a couple of days. 
If at the expiration of that time no rust can be 
observed I coat with the heav^y oil and set the 



1 84 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

weapon away perhaps for weeks, perfectly assured 
that It will be found in splendid shape months later. 
This sort of oil should always be rubbed out before 
shooting the gun, and is therefore not desirable 
where the arm is in daily use. 

Pouring boiling water through a tube until it 
becomes too hot to hold in the naked hand is an 
effective manner of killing rust. Occasionally pits are 
formed too deep for the scratch brush to reach the 
bottom of them, and then boiling water will be 
found the simplest means of checking further mis- 
chief. The heat of the barrels will evaporate all 
the water, but follow up with some energetic swab- 
bing with dry rags and then oil. 

The locks and action mechanism will not require 
overhauling very often unless the piece has been 
badly exposed, as by dropping into water. In that 
case take the gun to pieces at the first opportunity. 
Having no knowledge of mechanics, especially gun 
mechanics, or lacking proper tools, go to a gunsmith 
rather than risk marring a fine action. Once a year 
you should go through the piece from end to end 
by way of making sure that no rust has formed any- 
where. Some of our guns, at least those with the 
box-locks, are difficult for an amateur to take to 
pieces. By way of obviating this difficulty many 
English arms are being built with hand detachable 
locks both in the box and side plate. This manner 
of lock fastening is no doubt a positive advantage in 
shooting over salt water as the locks could be cleaned 



CARE OF THE GUN 185 

and oiled as regularly as the barrels without any 
possibility of marring screw heads or disarranging 
other parts. 

Finding that rust has formed on springs or other 
portions of the action mechanism, do not be tempted 
to use a file in removing; a spring might thus be 
weakened or some other vital part. A little emery 
polish can do no harm if carefully wiped off before 
oiling. Should this not fully remove the deposits 
send the arm to a gunsmith or back to the factory. 
Remember that as a rule the ordinary gunner does 
more harm than good when he begins tinkering with 
the locks of his gun. 

Be careful that your scratch brush is not made of 
steel sufficiently hard to cut the polish out of the 
barrels; the ordinary saucer-shaped little brush will 
do this with regularity and certainty. However, the 
four or eight row brushes are made of softer metal 
which I have not found to do any harm. The Le- 
fever Gun Cleaner is an excellent tool. It has pli- 
able steel plates, armed with soft steel teeth, and so 
bent as to contract and expand with the variations 
in the bore, keeping the teeth bearing evenly through- 
out. The brass covered rubber bulbs will do this 
also just as effectively. 

If your stock is oil finished and not varnished a 
filling oil should be rubbed into it occasionally. By 
hard rubbing with an oiled rag the Avood can be kept 
in as good shape as when it left the factory, or even 
improved in appearance. Dents and scratches can 



1 86 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

thus be rubbed out if not too deep, and with the 
poHshing the grain and curl of the wood become 
more apparent. 

Barrels of modern compressed steel do not dent 
easily, but if you are so unfortunate as to strike 
them with sufficient force to mar them they had best 
go back to the factory. No ordinary shooter or 
jackleg gunsmith should attempt to hammer dents 
out of a pair of barrels. 

Take care of your gun in crossing wire fences or 
the result will be a certain marring of the fore-end. 
There is a great temptation to press down a wire in 
crossing such fences with the gun and nine pieces in 
ten where they have seen much service in a cattle 
country show the effect of it. A rebounding wire is 
very apt to catch the stock, too, cutting into it so 
deeply as to be past remedy. 

Open and close the arm carefully, without any 
sudden jerks or extreme force. I have known more 
than one cocking hook to be broken clean off by the 
shooter yanking open his gun under excitement. 
Modern guns are made pretty strong, but they 
shouldn't be expected to stand as much rough usage 
as a jack-screw. Snapping the locks with the shell 
chambers empty is a bad habit. It is like striking 
a heavy fist blow into the empty air and any boxer 
can tell you how that feels. Put spent shells into 
the arm should you desire to practice snapping and 
aiming. 



CARE OF THE GUN 187 

Procure a good heavy sole leather case In which 
to carry your gun when traveling. Possibly the 
weapon will have to be submitted to the tender 
mercies of a baggage master at odd times, and good- 
ness knows what he will do to it. He may hang it 
on the side of the car and allow it to fall or drop on 
an iron bound trunk; maybe the trunk will do the 
dropping with the gun beneath it. Under such cir- 
cumstances the stock might be cracked or the bar- 
rels bent. Traveling in a wagon with the arm 
lying at the bottom and bumping over a rough 
road is not much better, but it is safer than for a 
half dozen men to crowd into one wagon, holding 
their naked guns in hand with the invariable result 
of striking the barrels roughly together. Horse- 
back work is especially hard upon the gun which 
should be encased in a heavy scabbard, preferably 
one lined with sheepskin possessing a dense fleece. 

Occasionally even a careful gunner will drop his 
weapon upon the ground. When this happens al- 
ways look through the barrels to be sure that no 
dirt or other deposit has found Its way into them. 
I have known several barrels to be burst by having 
a very small amount of dirt in the muzzle; even soft 
snow may do the same thing. Should there be 
anything in the barrel clean it out carefully. In one 
instance that fell under my observation the shooter 
removed a bit of earth with a stick, and the next 
charge tore the barrel off. Do not permit any boy 



i88 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

or other irresponsible person to fool with your gun, 
and do not loan it to your best friend — give him 
another one. 

I can only repeat : make the nightly cleaning of 
your piece an invariable habit, not to be omitted 
under any circumstances. No more think of going 
to beci with your gun dirty than sleeping with your 
wet boots on. If you make any excuse and fail of 
your duty to the faithful piece just once, the thing 
will grow upon you, and shortly the arm will be in 
such condition as to be considered not worth clean- 
ing. Remove lead with elbow grease and a scratch 
brush, depending mostly upon the elbow. 



PART II 
SCIENCE OF WING-SHOOTING 



CHAPTER I 
WING-SHOOTING PROBLEMS 

IN wing-shooting an object in motion must 
be struck by missiles from an arm also 
in motion. The whole science of wing-shoot- 
ing consists in delivering a charge of shot, not di- 
rectly at the flying target, but to a point where the 
bird will be when the charge reaches it. A woman 
novelist states the matter very naively when telling 
her sister sportswomen how to shoot English spar- 
rows with a 22 rifle. Incidentally the lady cleverly 
demonstrates that she possesses all those qualities 
of lively imagination so requisite in a writer of "fic- 
tion for girls." According to the authoress she 
early discovered that when attempting to hit the 
little birds while they were sitting she missed be- 
cause of their springing away with the flash of the 
gun, but when she jumped them and shot zvhere they 
would be when the bullet got there she killed them 

191 



192 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

every time. Wing-shooting is as simple as that, 
merely shoot exactly where the bird will be when 
the shot gets there and success is certain, even with 
a rifle. 

Many of us have had more trouble to do this 
with a shotgun, however, than this feminine writer 
of fiction seems to have found with a rifle, hence 
this book on the science of wing-shooting. If the 
birds invariably flew in the same direction with a 
motion as even as the flight of an arrow, at one un- 
varying rate of speed, and the gunner knew how 
to gauge the speed and angle to the fraction of an 
inch, possessing at the same time the mechanical 
regularity of a machine in every movement he 
made, I see no reason why he should not be as 
successful as the lady. 

In field shooting every separate shot may afford 
its own individual problem which must be solved in- 
stantly if the game is to be killed. Wing-shooting 
problems are highly complex, moreover, because 
nearly every factor is unknown. The only factor, 
indeed, that is absolutely known, or should be, is 
that when the gun is held right the bird is killed. 
The death of the bird proves, per se, that the prob- 
lem was correctly solved, and there is no other 
correct solution. Reasoning backward from results 
we know that the mind stated the unknown factors 
with truth and reckoned from them without error. 
However, suppose the bird were missed, the question 
then is to learn which of the unknown factors was 



WING-SHOOTING PROBLEMS 193 

misstated, and here our difficulties begin. It re- 
minds me of a department in an old arithmetic of 
my father's which was called supposition. You sup- 
posed such and such to be the case, and this gov- 
erned a second unknown quantity, which finally led 
to solving the problem provided your first supposi- 
tion had been correct; otherwise you tried again — 
in wing-shooting at another bird. 

The unknown factors in wing-shooting are the 
behavior of the shot charge and where it has gone 
when you miss; the direction, rate of speed, and 
evenness of flight of the target; the mechanical abil- 
ity of the gunner to perform certain acts with abso- 
lute regularity and precision; the behavior of the 
shooter's mind and nerves under varying degrees 
of tension. 

If only one of these unknown quantities were 
known, fixed, and stable it would immensely facili- 
tate learning to shoot on the wing. For instance, if 
our shot charge went up to the target in the shape 
of a ball, approximately thirty inches in diameter, 
that we could see strike or miss the target, we 
could all learn more of this art in a year than we 
now do in a lifetime. The expert shot can fre- 
quently tell why he has missed and where his charge 
went, but not so the novice for whom we are writ- 
ing. Even the most experienced are frequently puz- 
zled as to the cause of missing, though in their case 
it merely adds to the fascination of the game which 
would lose in interest if made too easy. 



194 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

In the same way if we could shoot at game which 
had an undeviating line of flight, with angles that 
never changed and a speed that never varied, strik- 
ing the mark would be greatly simplified. We 
would then have conditions similar to those that 
govern trap shooting at artificial birds where high 
scores are made with such regularity as to become 
monotonous. 

Given a shot charge that could be seen and a 
target at known angles whose rate of flight never 
changed, and we would still have two unstable fac- 
tors to contend with; the inability to make a perfect 
mechanical machine of the human body and poor 
team work on the part of brain and nerves. Me- 
chanically, nature has endowed us differently. A 
man may be able to draw one straight line, but if 
you tell him to draw ten, one of them will be 
crooked; some other can draw ten straight lines but 
will fail before reaching a hundred. The more 
difficult the task and the longer continued, the high- 
er the degree of mechanical skill required. An ex- 
pert modern trapshot is simply a great mechanic 
and nothing else, but a high degree of mechanical 
skill is a requisite in every description of wing- 
shooting. Nevertheless it is only one of the factors 
that lead to success in live bird shooting. 

The action of an individual's mind and nerves 
under varying degrees of excitement is one of the 
shooting factors that are extremely hard to control. 
Reliable work can only be accomplished by the man 



WING-SHOOTING PROBLEMS 195 

whose mind and nerves have been trained to that 
very sort of thing. They must work with automatic 
rapidity, without effort, under all circumstances. 
Pulling the three-pound trigger of a shotgun is a 
very simple thing but it takes one man six times as 
long to accomplish it as it does another, or the 
trigger may be pressed in 4-100 of a second ordi- 
narily but under excitement will be pulled in i-ioo 
of a second. If one pull places the charge upon 
the bird the other would probably miss it. 

It might be well to illustrate some of the shoot- 
ing principles mentioned. A quail is passing the 
gun at a distance of twenty yards and the arm is 
aligned two feet ahead of the bird and fired, re- 
sulting in a kill. Now the student of wing-shooting 
has an apparent foundation to work upon, one of 
his unknown factors has become a fixed quantity; a 
bird crossing at right angles, twenty yards distant, 
can be killed by holding two feet in advance. But 
the next bird that affords a similar shot is a duck 
and shooting two feet in front of it scores a clean 
miss. His theory of holding two feet ahead of the 
target proved wrong in this case and he must find 
reasons. By and by it may occur to him that the 
duck was flying faster than the quail, forty feet a 
second faster. The necessity of closely calculating 
the speed of flight of the target is thus strongly 
impressed, and it dawns upon him that one of the 
unknown factors, speed of flight, can never become 
a fixed quantity, but must always be estimated, and 



196 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

upon his sound judgment depends his skill as a shot. 

The next duck that comes along he leads four 
feet and kills, much to his satisfaction, for now he 
knows that two feet in advance of a quail will kill 
it and four feet in front will connect with ducks. 
However, a third duck is of a different variety, one 
that comes loitering by at twenty miles an hour. A 
pull four feet ahead of this fowl results in another 
rank miss and a badly puzzled shooter. Holding 
two or four feet in advance doesn't all depend on 
the variety of bird for the same wings can carry 
it fast or slow, and every bird must be judged in- 
dividually. 

Again a quail comes by. A two feet lead will 
surely kill him as it did before, but just as the trig- 
ger is pressed the bird suddenly swoops, and the 
charge goes harmlessly above him. Birds must fly 
evenly if our novice is to strike them; yes, and 
any one else — that is what the second barrel is for. 
Yet another duck wings by and the gunner means 
to try that four foot lead again, but the aim is 
high. He knows it, but there is no time for more 
than the one aim and he cannot avoid throwing his 
charge away. Our tyro has learned something else, 
though, if he is to kill he must have the mechanical 
ability to place his charge exactly where he means 
it to go, otherwise the knowledge of speed and 
where to hold that he has been acquiring is all 
wasted. 



WING-SHOOTING PROBLEMS 197 

More opportunities occur and the student re- 
solves to be extremely careful as to where he 
places his next shot. All his movements are more 
deliberate. He swings slowly and pulls steadily and 
carefully, as nearly as he can judge exactly four 
feet ahead of the duck, but it goes on without the 
loss of a feather. Now what the deuce was wrong? 
Did he fail to estimate the speed, or to hold where 
he intended? He may not know it or learn what 
was the trouble for a long time, but the miss was 
due entirely to his extreme care and over cau- 
tion, to dwelling on the trigger and taking 6-100 of 
a second to pull it in place of his usual i-ioo. Dur- 
ing the time lost by his over carefulness the bird 
flew four feet and the shot passed away behind. His 
finger and brain worked together like balky horses, 
when one lunged forward the other held back. 

Gradually he acquires knowledge, but all birds 
do not fly past at twenty yards. A big bird swings 
down upon him and he thinks it very close, but the 
usual lead fails to cut a feather. His gun swung 
to the very spot he wished, he pulled in exact time, 
the flight of the fowl never wavered from a straight 
line, and yet he missed. Neither would he ever 
have known why except for a friend standing near 
who asked him where he had held and how far off 
he considered the bird to be. His reply was twenty- 
five yards and he had held five feet in front of the 
old drake. He was skeptical when told that the 



198 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

fowl was not less than forty-five yards distant and 
that he should have aimed from eight to ten feet 
in front of it. 

All this will be dwelt upon later. Here I wish 
merely to impress upon the reader that the difficul- 
ties of wing-shooting lie almost entirely in the in- 
ability of the gunner to detect the cause of error. 
Should he ascribe the trouble to one thing and it 
proves to be something else, he will surely go far- 
ther astray. There is no such thing as profiting 
by our mistakes unless we know what those mistakes 
are. A bird might be missed by giving it too much 
lead while the shooter, concluding he had not led 
enough, would get farther and farther out with every 
succeeding miss. Very likely the result of a perfect 
estimate of distance, angle, and speed is thrown 
away by the novice keeping poor time, swinging too 
fast or too slow, with a consequent placing of the 
charge elsewhere than where he thinks he did. Un- 
der such circumstances the most natural and easiest 
thing to do is to change the point of aim with the 
inevitable additional misses that are as certain to 
follow as that two wrongs do not make a right. 

A false diagnosis leads to the novice swallowing 
many bitter and useless doses. It is like a hunter 
hurrying to camp but on the wrong road, the 
faster he walks the farther off he gets. 

Some of the problems of wing-shooting are much 
more complex than any of the foregoing. It took 
the writer a good ten years of steady practice to 



WING-SHOOTING PROBLEMS 199 

solve one, and he thinks well of his work at that. 
Through years of shooting I was considerably exer- 
cised by the fact that I missed easy shots, generally 
quail going straight away or gently quartering — 
shots that should have been as easy as falling oft a 
log. Very often this happened when I was perfectly 
cool and collected, covering my target with such 
ease and certainty that missing should have been 
impossible. By and by, from being told by com- 
panions and seeing the shot strike the water or sand, 
I learned that the trouble was shooting low. There 
was no doubt that I missed by shooting under, but 
I couldn't see why when the bird had been quiver- 
ing along just above the muzzle of my gun as it 
had a thousand times before when killed. One thing 
was obvious; I only lost the birds that I felt sure 
of killing, those that were covered with deliberate, 
calculating accuracy. 

That being the case, I had only to quicken time, 
or shoot a trifle more recklessly to kill, and this I 
could do. However, this did not satisfy me; I 
wished to know reasons for the miss as the only 
sure means of preventing its recurrence. My first 
conclusion was that with deliberate shots I flinched 
and dropped the muzzle without knowing it. This 
satisfied me in a way, though I worried because I 
never could detect the flinching or discover means 
of preventing it. Then I solved the mystery though 
I still miss the birds sometimes. 

Here is the solution which applied in my case 



200 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

and might or might not in others. At the exact 
instant when an experienced shot expects his wea- 
pon to be discharged, he unconsciously leans for- 
ward to catch the recoil which would otherwise 
throw him backward out of balance, preventing the 
quick delivery of his second barrel. Now suppose 
the weapon misses fire, there being no recoil to re- 
store the equilibrium of the body, it continues for- 
ward and if the gunner is standing in a light duck 
boat he may be pitched out. On firm ground the 
muscles of the feet will quickly restore him to posi- 
tion, but he will find his gun pointing well beneath 
the target. 

In a minor degree all this happened to me when 
I pulled deliberately. Leaning forward to catch the 
kick which did not come at the anticipated time be- 
cause of slow pulling, down went the muzzle of my 
gun enough to insure a miss. Of course leaning for- 
ward might not depress the muzzle of the gun if 
you did it consciously, but not one shooter in a 
thousand knows that he does it, and considerable 
poor work can be attributed to this cause. 

Close observation, experience, and practice will 
take you safely over the road to the expert wing- 
shot's camp, and the farther you travel the smooth- 
er the path becomes — only do not take the wrong 
trail or walk in a circle, neither trust any one else to 
more than point the direction you ought to go. 

In an entire day's field shooting no two shots 
may be alike; indeed, it is a question if two shots 



WING-SHOOTING PROBLEMS 201 

are ever exactly similar in live bird shooting. One 
bird is driving, another is coming in; this little chap 
quarters with a rising flight, and the next is drop- 
ping like a bullet; the snipe dodges, while the mal- 
lard swerves and towers; now a wary old pintail 
beats up against the wind and hovers over the de- 
coys, but forty yards beyond a blue wing teal 
whistles down the wind at a hundred and twenty 
miles an hour. No man ever lived or ever will live 
that could kill them all, which is as it should be. 
I can remember the time when I could recall 
every kill made during an entire season and where 
I held for the shot. That time will never come to 
me again. The very best sport Is enjoyed only by 
the ambitious novice who Is just beginning to learn. 
Youth, a good gun, and the brown birds rising in 
the ragweed field need ask no odds of king or mil- 
lionaire. What matter if In five only one solved 
problem has deadly results, life is before the boy 
and the skill that Is surely coming to every man 
who loves the gun. 



CHAPTER II 
AIMING 

One Eye Aiming. Binocular Shooting. Gun 
Pointing 

WING-SHOOTING is of comparatively 
modern origin. A hundred years ago 
very few birds were killed a-wing, and 
those with a long barreled old flintlock that usually 
had double sights and was fired with what we should 
consider a slow, pottering aim. Wing-shooting 
really dates from the invention of percussion caps 
in a practical form, about 1830, and the present 
style of shotgun shooting is of very modern origin. 
Naturally the rifle method of aiming had its in- 
fluence for a good many years, a full half century 
in fact, long after the invention of breech-loading 
guns. The old manner of shooting a shotgun was 
to close one eye and squint low over the breech, 
theoretically never pulling trigger until the front 
bead was accurately aligned upon the target. Many 
an old veteran still speaks learnedly of "drawing 
a bead" on the game. The author's wing-shooting 

202 



AIMING 203 

career has been connected with the breechloader 
only, yet In his first lessons, given by his father, the 
necessity of closing one eye if any accuracy of aim 
were to be attained, was strongly emphasized. In 
truth the primer of gun firing was to learn to close 
one eye instantly and invariably preparatory to 
aiming, and the second principle was not to shut 
them both before pulling the trigger. If in those 
days any man had discov^ered that he could kill 
game by simply pointing his gun without closing his 
eye or seeing a sight, he would never have had 
courage enough openly to advocate such a system 
of gun aiming. 

Doubtless the coming of nitro powder has had 
much to do with the development of our present 
slap-bang fashion of shotgun shooting, yet due 
credit should be given to Doctor Carver who is 
properly entitled to be called the father of modern 
wing-shooting. Probably no less wonderful shot 
than he could have had influence enough to have 
changed a style of shotgun aiming that was once 
universal. 

The "one eye" method of sighting a shotgun is 
not altogether obsolete yet. Many a veteran sports- 
man has shot long and successfully in this way, and 
will not change; neither is there good reason why 
he should, for it is hard to teach an old dog new 
tricks, nor does he learn them quite so well as he 
knew the old. Nevertheless it is true that few or no 
expert shots ever close an eye in aiming to-day, 



204 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

though some of them in effect si^ht exactly the same 
as though they did. The writer has followed the 
Carver scheme of ^-un pointing more years than he 
can remember, and among all his friends who shoot 
well, especially in the uplands, there are none who 
have any other method of aiming. 

Many who point a gun without regard to sight 
or rib do it unconsciously. As an example, a shoot- 
ing companion of mine who found difficulty in con- 
necting with crossing birds concluded that a patent 
sight with three beads would assist him greatly. 
With a bird passing to the left he would use the 
right bead, and he figured to a mathematical nicety 
just how far ahead that would throw his charge. 
After a shot of the kind that usually troubled him, 
which he missed exactly as before, I asked him 
where he had held that off bead. He admitted 
blankly that he never had seen it, and neither could 
he remember ever seeing one of those three beads 
afterward when making a quick shot though they 
were big enough to cover a balloon. He soon threw 
the patent sight aside as being theoretically fine 
but practically worthless. 

One Eye Sighting 

One eye sighting is distinctly slow, and is not 
adapted to killing game that in the nature of its 
flight is either imperfectly outlined or rapidly gets 
beyond range. One eye aiming implies that the 



AIMING 205 



instant the gun comes to the shoulder there shall 
be a pause In its movement while the eye adjusts it- 
self to the sight, or, as it is called, finds it. This 
focusing the eye upon the sight necessarily dims 
the vision of the target, for there is no such thing 
as the human eye focusing perfectly both upon the 
gun sight and the game. Notwithstanding this the 
target can be seen, even though it appear shadowy, 
and the sight may be placed upon it accurately; in- 
deecl, if the game were not moving, or the shot was 
directed straight at it, with greater precision than 
any other way. But it occurs not infrequently that 
after you have paused to find the sight, the op- 
portunity is gone, either the game cannot be seen 
again or not quickly enough to cover it before it es- 
capes. 

Further, the principle involved in the one eye use 
of gunsights is that if they do not perfectly align 
with the target on the first attempt, withhold your 
fire and never pull trigger until sure of your aim. 
Naturally this theory of obtaining a second and 
surer sight when needful is rarely put in practice in 
wing-shooting, and if it were the result would be 
a pottering inefficiency that would last through life. 
The gun-pointing shot doesn't do things that way, 
since nothing short of a house intervening would 
prevent his shooting exactly on time. 

Finding the sights, whether with one or both 
eyes open, and putting the focused bead upon the 
target is beyond question the most accurate way of 



2o6 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

aiming a gun, as witness that it has been adopted 
by all riflemen who are obliged to do fine holding. 
The very finest sighting that I have ever seen done 
was accomplished with a telescope having a big 
leather blinder attached to the rear which en- 
tirely covered the left eye, thus permitting it to re- 
main wide open without seeing anything. Using 
a sight of this kind shots can be called within one 
inch at two hundred yards. This means that at shot- 
gun range of forty yards, a sighting error of one- 
fifth of an inch could be detected; the absurdity of 
such close sighting can be noted by recalling that a 
shotgun pattern covers at least thirty inches at the 
distance. 

What is required in wing-shooting is no such hair 
splitting aim, but that we cover the target with the 
utmost dispatch and pull on the instant — not a hun- 
dredth of a second sooner or later. Indeed, pulling 
a hundredth of a second too soon or the hundredth 
of a second too late will make more difference as 
to where our shot charge lands than any variation 
that can occur with the finest sight or no sight at all. 

While I am opposed on principle to the novice 
learning to sight a shotgun with one eye shut or 
both eyes open, in fact to sighting the arm at all, be- 
lieving that so taught he can never become a first 
rate performer on all sorts of game, yet I have 
seen so much excellent work in wildfowl shooting 
by men who closed one eye or who focused on the 
sight that I hesitate to say it is not an effective 



AIMING 207 

style of firing at ducks or any bird of large size 
that is habitually outlined against the sky. In 
shooting of this kind the game is often seen while 
approaching and allowance can be made for the 
time required to focus on the sights; neither is it 
requisite that the gun be handled with such rapidity 
as in upland work. 

Success with wildfowl is more due to correct 
estimates of distance and speed of flight than to 
manner of aiming, and since there is never any 
question of being able to see the bird, even with half 
an eye, it is probable that any system of sighting 
or pointing the gun can be made about equally ef- 
fective. 

Binocular Shooting — ^^Two-Eye Aiming 

Two-eye aiming, or binocular shooting, has all 
the advantages of closing one eye even for rifle fir- 
ing while a distinctly clearer view of the target is 
obtained, and distances can be estimated more 
positively. All of us who were taught to close one 
eye can well remember that the instant we blinded 
the left eye to find the sight, the bird at once ap- 
peared to be a great deal farther away. I can re- 
call that more than once when a boy I have shut 
the left eye and then decided that the quail was out 
of range, after which I opened both eyes and found 
it still well within reach. 

It is no doubt true that with only one eye a gun- 
ner could finally learn to judge distances as well as 



208 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



though he had the use of both, but when from birth 
to age he uses both eyes to see and estimate dis- 
tances a milHon times to where he does once with an 
eye shut, it reasonably follows that he will do bet- 




Binocular shooting, or gun pointing 

ter work in the style in which he has been trained 
even though that training were not with a gun. 
Therefore we can take it as a simple statement of 



AIMING 209 

fact that with both eyes open we can the most ac- 
curately estimate the distance that game is from us, 
the speed of its flight, and the lead necessary in 
order to kill. Pvloreover we can secure equally as 
fine sight with both eyes open, either with shotgun 
or rifle, provided one eye alone governs the line of 
sight or Is focused upon the sights. This eye is 
then said to be the master eye for the reason that 
the brain pays attention to what it is doing 
only. The other eye sees just the same, but of its 
vision the brain fails to keep any record. 

Ordinarily it is supposed that the master eye has 
the stronger vision, which entitles it to govern, but 
this does not follow by any means. In shooting 
from the right shoulder the right eye controls, not 
because its strength is greater, but for the simple 
reason that the brain has been trained to register 
only what this eye sees. It may be the stronger eye 
or it may not, and neither would this make much 
difference unless its vision were extremely defective 
while that of the other was normal. Ninety-nine 
times in a hundred one eye governs the line of sight 
entirely because it has been trained to do this and 
for no other reason. 

The usual manner of testing the eyes for shoot- 
ing is to hold up an object a proper distance from 
them and align it with a point beyond while keep- 
ing both eyes open. Now close the left eye and if 
the alignment doesn't change, the right eye gov- 
erns, but if on shutting the left eye the line of aim 



2IO THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



swings to the left the wrong optic has been in con- 
trol, and the student will have to begin training 
the right eye to assume the mastery or learn to 
shoot from the left shoulder. Either can be done, 
but it is much simpler and easier as a rule to put the 
brain to making its records from the proper eye. It 
might be noted, in passing, that in case of an ex- 
perienced shot no eye tests are necessary, for the 
one with which he has been accustomed to sighting 
is certain to govern. 

The style of aiming with both eyes open may be 
exactly the same as with one closed; that is the gun 
is brought up and there is a slight pause long 
enough for the eye to find the front sight which is 
then placed upon the point of aim. The focusing 
of the eye upon the front sight, however, will prob- 
ably not be so sharp as with the left eye shut, with 
the consequence that the vision of the game will be 
less dimmed. The man accustomed to aiming with 
one eye closed may find it best to teach himself to 
shoot with both eyes open while still focusing upon 
the sight after his acquired fashion. However, this 
is not the favorite or most effective mode of two- 
eye aiming. Modern wing shots have pronounced 
in favor of the 

Carver Method of Gun Pointing 

While this style of shotgun aiming is of modern, 
origin, in fact originated with Doctor Carver, yet 



AIMING 211 

it is the oldest of all systems of directing a missile. 
It was used by the rock slingers, the spear throwers, 
the dart casters, and was brought to the greatest 
perfection by the long-bowmen. Shooting in this 
fashion an Indian will drive a penny from between 
a split stick with half his shots at fifty feet, or 
strike a running deer at three hundred, and doubt- 
less the Anglo-Saxon bowmen were much better 
shots than any Indian. 

Gun pointing was the recognized manner of aim- 
ing of all our Western "bad men" and gun fighters 
whose gun play was entirely too rapid to be directed 
by any description of gun sights. In combined quick- 
ness and accuracy, from foot or horseback, the work 
of these men has never been equalled, but their 
system of shooting is now becoming a lost art be- 
cause it was not found the best adapted to target 
practice. Perhaps in course of time gun pointing 
will hold sway in short range shooting with every 
variety of firearm, for the military tendency at 
present is to encourage rapidity of fire. 

Probably it was from the Western gun-fighter 
that Doctor Carver, a Western man, got his idea 
of the correct way of sighting a shotgun. If the 
man with the sixshooter could hit nickels thrown 
into the air, rabbits running, a man on a galloping 
horse while himself mounted, or swing his weapon 
on a foe with such rapidity that the eye could not 
follow the movements, then why couldn't a man 
with a shotgun place its thirty inch pattern upon a 



212 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



flying bird without glueing his eye to any sights? 
Carver beheved that it could be done, and 
he showed the skeptical until everybody was ready 
to go away and do likewise. 

Gun pointing has been miscalled instinctive aim- 
ing, though in reality there is nothing instinctive 
about it. There can be nothing instinctive in doing 

a thing that 
we have 
learned to ac- 
c o m p 1 i s h 
t h r o u gh re- 
peating a per- 
formance 
thousands o f 
times. It is 
merely per- 
fecting an art 
that we have 
been acquiring 
from b a by- 
hood, that of 
Gun pointing — both eyes open beinff able to 

point the finger or something else directly at an 
object toward which we are fixedly looking. We 
might as well say that we write instinctively, be- 
cause we give no thought as to what the next stroke 
will be. In civilized human beings training takes 
the place of instinct which is a very imperfect fac- 




AIMING 213 

tor, though It must be admitted that every man has 
inherited tendencies. 

Shooting a pistol in the old Western way con- 
sisted simply in extending the hand quickly in the 
direction of the target and pulling on the instant. 
This one-hand gun pointing is the most natural 
method and the easiest to acquire because we have 
been at it a good many years before we ever grip- 
ped a gun. Shooting a shotgun differs from it only 
in that the piece is pointed with both hands in place 
of one, and while the method is more difficult to ac- 
quire it is steadier and more reliable, because with 
the butt of the weapon at the shoulder and both 
hands holding it, we have a firmer control than if 
the piece were directed entirely with the one hand. 
Shooting a shotgun in the Carver fashion, in its 
primary principle, is merely training the two hands 
to point at the exact spot at which the eyes are 
looking or the brain directs, without any lost mo- 
tion or focus upon sights. 

Shooting a revolver in the Western manner, with 
movement of hand too fast for the eye to follow, is 
in reality juggling a pistol, and muscles and nerves 
must undergo the same training as those of a jug- 
gler who keeps half a dozen balls in the air with 
one hand. The wing shot who aims by pointing also 
juggles his weapon in a way, though the training 
necessary to do this is not so severe because the 
movements are not especially rapid. Nevertheless 



214 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

he undergoes a degree of training that insures his 
weapon being aligned automatically or without con- 
scious effort before he becomes an expert shot. 
When he has reached a stage where none of the 
movements of his piece require conscious super- 
vision, then they are said to be instinctive, though, 
as we have seen, instinct has nothing whatever to 
do with it, but it is training pure and simple. 

The advantages of pointing a shotgun in place of 
getting the eye close down to the barrels and align- 
ing rib and sight are these: Point your finger at an 
object quickly, without any effort to sight or clos- 
ing an eye, and you will find that while it is di- 
rected precisely, yet nevertheless you are glancing 
some distance above the finger. Now close one eye 
and you will note at once a tendency to drop the 
head and si^ht the finger. The same optical prin- 
ciple applies to pointing and sighting a gun; under 
the former system you naturally keep the barrels 
well down out of the line of vision, but at the same 
time direct them at the object with exactly the same 
precision as in the other way. 

Moreover in pointing a gun by means of a thor- 
ough training of the hands, you are in a measure in- 
dependent of fit of gunstock. Indeed, in my own 
experience and that of others, any gun can be shot 
accurately so long as the drop of stock is not so 
great as to bring the barrels within the line of sight, 
or where they will interfere with a clear view of the 
target. Correct alignment is not nearly so depend- 



AIMING 2jj_ 

ent upon drop of stock, as it is upon the position 
of the two hands grasping grip and fore-end. 

For instance, if you are accustomed to a gun that 
is grasped nearly in the hne of fire, and you then 
attempt to shoot with one having a deep fore-end 
which places the left hand low, or a piece with grip 
set low behind the frame, you will at once note a 
feeling of uncertainty as to where you are point- 
ing. I should therefore conclude that an accus- 
tomed grip and fore-stock were of as much import- 
ance as drop at comb and grip. Additionally it 
should be noted that if the hands are to do the point- 
ing, unassisted by sights, they should grasp the 
piece well apart, that is with the left hand ex- 
tended as far as possible without strain, and the 
places where they grip the arm should never vary 
an iota. 

Given a gun that I have grown to with use, I find 
that I can shoot as effectively when holding my face 
several inches from the gunstock, really not inclining 
the head toward the stock in the least, but holding it 
perfectly erect, some inches above the line of the 
barrels and well to one side. I have further drop- 
ped my head toward the left shoulder in place of 
the right and struck my bird with the same facility, 
proving that the hands were accomplishing their 
work automatically without regard to the position 
of the sighting eye with reference to the line of 
sight. Dropping the stock low on the shoulder, or 
jamming the comb tight against the cheek made not 



2i6 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

a particle of difference so long as the automatic 
action of the hands was not interfered with by try- 
ing to govern them directly by means of the sight. 

In gun pointing the sight should never be seen, 
nor rib, nor barrel, neither should they be even 
thought of, for if the eye is permitted to interfere 
with the calculation of the brain two bosses of equal 
authority are installed with the obvious result that 
nothing will be accomplished. In this style of aim- 
ing the gun should be swung methodically, with 
mechanical uniformity of movement, and the trigger 
pressed the moment you feel that the aim is correct. 
No mystery need be made of this feeling of being 
right, for it is merely the signal of the brain to the 
nerves that the work has been well accomplished. 
The same feeling is in evidence when a baseball 
pitcher has released a ball which he knows will 
split the pan, or when the billiardist or golf player 
has made a true stroke. 

In gun pointing, long and short barrels can be 
shot with much less variation in the holding than 
when the eye governs the line of sight, for with the 
latter method a long sighting plane is a positive ad- 
vantage. The hands will do their work with the 
same facility, be the barrels long or short, since 
these are never seen, but length of tubes is to be 
preferred for other than sighting reasons, as 
balance of the arm, steadiness in swinging to a given 
point, with reduced recoil, etc. 

Relative to the rapidity of shooting under the two 



AIMING 217 



systems, when a rifle is fired the two sights are first 
placed exactly in a line which is then directed to the 
point of aim. Should this line of sight not cover the 
target precisely the piece is not discharged but the 
sights are swung on again and again before the trig- 
ger is pulled; it may take the rifleman from fifteen 
to sixty seconds to secure a satisfactory aim and 
pull. This sort of aiming is absolutely impracti- 
cable in shotgun shooting for obvious reasons, in 
fifteen seconds the target might be two or three 
hundred yards away. 

In some descriptions of wing shooting, as quail 
or rufted grouse in the woods, the gun is dis- 
charged within three-quarters of a second after the 
brain has realized that the bird is on the wing; dur- 
ing this length of time the shooter tals.es position, 
brings his gun to his shoulder, selects the point of 
aim, directs his piece there, and presses the trigger. 
No "second sight" can be obtained under such cir- 
cumstances, whatever error the eye may detect at 
the instant of firing, and accuracy is absolutely de- 
pendent upon the mechanical training of the hands 
which direct the gun. By putting the eye and mind 
upon the gunsights these can be noted very clearly, 
but while doing this the bird is lost. 

The one advantage in "sighting," among all its 
disadvantages, is that the novice can more readily 
detect errors in holding. He cannot prevent the 
shot he is firing from going wrong, but he may be 
able to analyze every movement of his piece and to 



2i8 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

discover which particular feature needs correction; 
for he might be making some mistake with mechan- 
ical regularity and certainty, just as in writing he 
may produce some ill formed letter and be quite un- 
able to alter its form except with deliberate care. 
Perhaps it is true that a high degree of skill in gun 
pointing is the result of a post graduate course in 
wing-shooting rathei chan the A. B. C. of the art. 

Now there may be cioubt in the mind of the be- 
ginner or others as to whether a shotgun can be 
pointed accurately enough invariably to place the 
pattern upon the target, for it is not claimed that 
sufficient precision can be developed for deliberate 
rifle shooting. With a view to settling this question 
the writer made a series of experiments at twenty 
yards with a 22 rifle in which the sights had been 
removed. 

With a well balanced rifle, handling like a shot- 
gun, ball after ball could be placed in a six inch 
circle, the majority of them going into four inch. 
No attempt was made to level or even see the bar- 
rel and the arm was fired with the same rapidity as 
a shotgun at quail. 

In order to be sure that the barrel was not being 
leveled or sighted, a blinder was built up on the bar- 
rel over the position of the ordinary rear sight; any 
attempt to sight over this would have thrown the 
bullets two feet high. After a few shots the results 
were just the same as before, and so long as the 
target could be seen the gun could be pointed there 



AIMING 



219 



with ample accuracy to kill every bird with a shot- 
gun. Diagrams are here presented of ten-shot 
targets made in this fashion both with the naked 
barrel and the blinder attached. Of course such 
shooting is dependent somewhat upon the skill of 
the marksman, and so is any other kind of shooting 
for the matter of that. 




Tlirec ten-shot targets made with a 22 rifle at 20 yards with 
a blinder over the rear sight, showing the effect of binocular 
gun pointing. 

In some measure every man must be a law unto 
himself in his work with a gun. While I use the 
pointing system of aiming for all game, yet some 
of my shooting acquaintances tell me that whereas 
they can point very accurately at anything flying 
near the ground, at birds passing overhead they 
have a feeling of uncertainty as to where they are 
holding that leads them to prefer aligning the bar- 
rels by direct sight of eye in such work. Doubtless 
it is all much a matter of training and habit. 



CHAPTER III 

SNAP SHOOTING DELIBERATE SWING 
RAPID SWING 

An Analysis and a Comparison 

ALMOST every writer on the topic of field 
shooting will at some time mention making 
a snap shot at a bird, or perhaps cover- 
ing another and then swinging ahead before firing. 
The reader can readily gather from these essays 
that snapping is a very prompt way of delivering 
a shot, while the swing is both more deliberate and 
more accurate. It is not lilcely, however, that, 
taught by books solely, the student will ever be 
able to fix in his own mind exactly what a snap shot 
is nor what constitutes a swinging shot further than 
that one is discharged in much the shorter time. 
Still less will he have grounds for deciding which 
particular style of shooting he ought himself to 
adopt. 

The object of this chapter is to analyze these 
systems of aiming, making as plain as possible what 
constitutes a snap shot, what a deliberate swing, and 

220 



SNAP-SHOOTING AND SWING 221 

the difference in principle between a deliberate and 
a rapid swing. Simple diagrams and drawings are 
used to illustrate with the hope of making the sub- 
ject plainer to the beginner. 

The term "line of swing" will be used frequently 
in this chapter so it is well to give an early explana- 




Line of Fl 



- P:^ 



Rough snap, semi-snap, and rapid swing 

tion of its meaning. The accompanying diagram 
shows the line of swing. It is the line covered by the 
moving gunsights from the time the piece strikes the 
shoulder or the sights are caught to where they 
are pointed when the gun is fired. The character 
of this gun movement or sight movement consti- 
tutes the difference in the three styles of gun aiming 
that we are discussing. 

Technically, snap shooting has no line of swing, 



222 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

the aim being taken before the gun is brought up, 
the sights are thrown directly to the desired point 
and the arm is discharged the instant the butt hits 
the shoulder. While this is snap shooting proper, 
it is a very ineffective manner of firing even at an 
object at rest, for the reason that when the butt 
jams into the shoulder muscles the latter give and 
then rebound, causing the gun muzzle to vibrate to 
such an extent as to insure a miss except with a very 
wide spread of pattern. Selecting a point of aim 
before the gun is thrown to the shoulder is making 
a pretty fine calculation too. It must be admitted; 
the bird might spring to the north of you, and with- 
out a moment's hesitation you would have to know 
the precise spot to the northwest where the shot 
charge would meet it. 

Such absolute judgment of speed and angle of 
flight is next to impossible, and the experienced 
gunner never attempts snap shooting in this fashion 
except when he perceives that the opportunity to 
shoot at all will be so fleeting that it is either a 
rough snap shot or none. Impressed with the belief 
that wing-shooting is merely jerking up the gun and 
lamming away, the novice is liable to practice just 
this sort of snapping with the result that when he 
does hit he cannot tell why, nor give a reason for 
his misses. The expert who can handle his gun 
like a part of himself cannot shoot successfully in 
this manner, much less a tyro who is none too sure 
of the easy shots. 



SNAP-SHOOTING AND SWING 223 

There is another style of snap shooting, how- 
ever, that is widely practiced by nearly all clever 
upland shots. It consists of throwing the gun close 
to the game with the motion of bringing it to the 
shoulder, but always sufficiently under it. From this 
point beneath the target the line of swing travels 
in a direct course with great quickness to the place 
where the gun is discharged, following the line C-E, 
shown in the diagram on page 221. 

Suppose a grouse has sprung from the brush and 
is circling to the left and rising. It has been esti- 
mated that a grouse or a quail will be ten feet into 
the air before a man's mind can give his nerves and 
muscles any instruction whatever. Then if a rough 
snap shot were to be made the gun would be at once 
flung ahead of the bird and there fired. The diffi- 
culty of making such a shot is obvious. In the first 
place the motion of raising a gun to the shoulder is 
com_plicateci compared with moving to a given spot 
after it is up and steady. Moreover in a rough snap 
there is never any change of aim from the place 
the mind estimates as right. The gun is simply 
thrown to that place and fired. 

Orders have been given which the mind cannot 
alter if it would, and even should the bird be killed 
meantime by another gunner the snapped piece 
would be discharged precisely as though the bird 
were still flying. Thus we see that the problems 
confronting the rough snap shot are: a mechanical 
Inability to jam a gun to the shoulder and shoot to a 



224 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

given spot, and the extraordinary judgment re- 
quired to foretell where the bird will be when the 
arm is ready to fire. 

We have all heard of some snap shots that were 
as quick as lightning, and of course if this were 
literally so the shot could be sent to the first possible 
place, but it should be remembered that the man is 
probably walking with his gun down, and during 
the short space of say half a second he must get 
his feet into position, make his estimates, and bring 
up his gun — meantime the bird will be doing some- 
thing you may be sure, covering not less than 
twenty-five feet. Nevertheless it is not to be doubt- 
ed that the quicker the shooter, the lighter his gun, 
and the more open his pattern the simpler his 
problem becomes. 

At best, however, shooting in this fashion, an 
expert could not expect to connect with more than 
one bird in three. Knowing this the skilled wing- 
shot would never attempt the rough snap except 
that suppose at the natural place of aim there was a 
tree with brush beyond; reaching this tree the grouse 
would have been safe so nothing remained but to 
chance the lightning snap at the point marked. It 
follows that the novice should never deliver a rough 
snap unless any other kind of an aim is impossible 
either because the bird will be out of sight or pos- 
sibly out of range. In either of which events it is 
to be preferred to not shooting at all. 

The second or practical style of snap shooting is 



SNAP-SHOOTING AND SWING 225 

much more reliable. With this method the gun is 
thrown up below the target; first, that the v-iew of 
the game may not be obscured in the least; second, 
that time may be given to the gun muzzle to cease its 
vibrations ere it covers the point of aim; third, that 
while the line of swing is moving steadily yet rap- 
idly to the point where the charge is to go the trig- 
ger finger can be given due warning to pull; fourth, 
the estimates for lead and speed of flight are greatly 
simplified because only taken from the time the gun 
is up and not from the rising of the bird. The 
problem here is to make the line of aim cross the 
line of flight of the bird, and this is comparatively 
easy. 

In its principle rough snap shooting throws 
the gun to the point of aijii without a line of swing. 
That of semi-snap shooting is to intersect the line 
of flight with the line of swing in the shortest and 
most direct way. For instance, with some angles of 
flight the gun might be thrown too far ahead and 
then the "line of aim" would be carried back toward 
the flying target. Naturally this happens seldom 
unless the bird changes his course, the skilled shot 
endeavoring to throw up his weapon in such a posi- 
tion that it will only be necessary to lift it straight 
to the spot where it will be fired. 

The more accurate the judgment of the sports- 
man as to the bird's speed of flight the nearer he 
will come to throwing his piece to the proper place 
with a consequent shorter line of swing and a 



226 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

quicker shot. But in doing this it should not be 
forgotten that the hne of swing must always be of 
sufficient length to steady the gun before it covers 
the mark, and to fairly warn the pulling finger. 
Otherwise you are on the bird, as they say, "before 
you know it," and the result is an almost inevitable 
miss. This not infrequently happens with straight- 
away birds, where in the nature of things the swing 
is short, and it is a most productive and irritating 
source of misses. Indeed it is an axiom with veteran 
field shots that the driving bird requires the steadiest 
of all holding. 

Successful snap shooting necessitates a very quick 
and sensitive trigger. Bear in mind that the line 
of aim merely intercepts the line of flight and can 
only do so at one point, at one instant; any dwell- 
ing upon the trigger, a pressure that comes the 
smallest fraction of a second too soon or too late, 
leads to certain missing. The bird may be traveling 
fifty feet a second, the line of swing a hundred feet 
a second or more; should the trigger yield the one- 
hundredth of a second fast or slow the game will 
be missed a foot. Any irregularity of trigger pull- 
ing is fatal, and a man who needs a greater time 
than a fiftieth of a second to release his trigger 
had better adopt some other style of aiming. 

Snap shooting or semi-snap shooting is an effec- 
tive style of aiming only upon birds that are not 
changing their angle with regard to the gun too 
rapidly — that is upon straightaway or quartering 



SNAP-SHOOTING AND SWING 227 

birds. Should the quarry rise and swing about the 
gun would inevitably have to follow it if the piece 
came up promptly, or a swift flying fowl might 
come in from the right and pass to the left before 
it. could be covered, with the result that the gun 
would have to move after and overtake it before 
being discharged. This would lead to the third 
mode of aiming, technically known as a rapid 
swing. 

In this style the line of aim travels along 
the line of flight or preferably takes a parallel 
course just beneath it for the sake of an unobstruct- 
ed view. The working principle of the rapid swing 
is that the gun is invariably aligned behind the bird 
and the "line of aim" is then swung after it much 
faster than the bird is traveling, until it overtakes 
and passes the moving mark to the point where 
the charge is sent. 

The strength of this system of gun aiming lies 
in this : The gun moving in the path of flight of 
the game takes the elevation automatically. In il- 
lustration of this, should the bird be rising the line 
of aim rises also and will continue to do so after 
passing the bird, necessarily striking its mark unless 
the course of the target alters radically. Of course 
an identical rule would apply were the bird descend- 
ing, climbing, or taking any other angle of elevation 
so long as the line of swing followed the line of 
flight and passed it the proper distance. 

Rapid swing simplifies lead also, for should the 



228 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

line of aim be traveling three times as fast as the 
bird flies an estimated lead of one foot would 
place the charge three feet ahead of the bird, the 
gain being made during the interim of pressing the 
trigger and the passage of the shot up the barrel. 
Moreover it must be borne in mind that now the 
line of aim is not intersecting that of flight but 
traveling with it, which permits considerable lati- 
tude in trigger pulling. Should the gunner be a 
trifle quiclc or slow the charge still being in line 
will probably catch the mark with some portion of 
the pattern. 

Almost every skillful wildfowl gunner uses the 
rapid swing, and many do so in the uplands as 
well. Birds with a speed of from sixty to one 
hundred miles an hour are entirely too fast to be 
snapped with any certainty. 

The diagram indicates the difference in lead be- 
tween a swinging shot and a snap shot. The bird 
is supposed to be distant from the gun one hundred 
feet, and is traveling at the rate of one hundred feet 
a second. The normal velocity of a shot charge over 
a one hundred foot course is eight hundred feet a 
second, and at this velocity it would require one- 
eighth of a second for the pellets to reach the 
mark. In one-eighth of a second the fowl would 
fly twelve and one-half feet which is the theoretical 
lead necessary for shot and target to connect. If 
the line of aim intersects the line of flight at right 
angles — as in snap shooting — the full theoretical 



SNAP-SHOOTING AND SWING 229 




■2 swm 



'S ""^^^^guiv 



The difference in lead between a snap shot and a swinging shot 

lead must be taken, and if there is any dwelling 
upon the trigger a further allowance must be given. 
But with a swinging shot in which the line of 
aim travels three times as fast as the bird, this 
sighting line will move six feet in the fiftieth of a 
second required for a quick man to pull the trigger 
and for the passage of the shot up the barrel. 
Hence we have lead for a snap shot twelve and 
one-half feet, lead for a swinging shot six and one- 



230 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

half feet. In case of the man who requires the 
maximum length of time to pull, or six-one-hun- 
dredths of a second, a further lead of six feet would 
have to be given with a snap shot or a total of 
eighteen and one-half feet. No man could make 
such an estimate. 

By consulting experienced wing shots it will be 
learned that hardly any two of them will make the 
same estimate for the lead necessary to kill at a 
given distance; neither theoretically nor practically 
are they holding at the same place. In fact with 
the rapid swing every man is a law unto himself, 
the distance he holds ahead being governed by the 
rapidity of his swing, his time in triger pulling, 
and his habit of maintaining a uniform gun move- 
ment after pressing the trigger. One shooter 
might swing rapidly but would check his piece at 
the moment of firing and so lose all the advantage 
of swinging: another would accelerate the motion 
of his muzzle at the instant of firing and so gain 
more than six feet. The same thing could be done 
by the individual of slow trigger, who if he pulled 
in six-one-hundredths of a second could actually gain 
eighteen feet and would not need to make any lead 
at all — neither would he hit anything, for it might 
well be stated now that a pull of as slow as six-one- 
hundredths of a second is quite too slow for wing 
shooting. 

Nevertheless some of the best duck shots that 
I have ever known stated positively that they made 



SNAP-SHOOTING AND SWING 23 1 

no allowance whatever for speed of flight or dis- 
tance of the mark further than to merely hold in 
front and swing. Watching them at work I ar- 
rived at the conclusion that they made the neces- 
sary gain entirely by the rapidity with which they 
swung — for all of them moved their pieces very 
swiftly — and not by any hesitation on the trigger. 

Doubtless the acme of wing shooting is to be 
able to swing with such rapidity and uniformity as 
to obviate the necessity for any lead, but it will 
not do for the novice to attempt to graduate his 
first year in school. Indeed the average sportsman 
never learns to shoot in this way, neither should he 
endeavor to do so unless so situated that he can 
fire shot after shot days, weeks, and months in suc- 
cession. 

Indeed the swifter the swing the grav^er the prob- 
lem of so governing it that the shot can be placed 
with sufficient precision to strike the mark. The 
neophyte can readily learn this for himself by at- 
tempting to shoot at a stationary mark while swing- 
ing the gunsights past it. Experience soon teaches 
the gunner about how fast he can swing success- 
fully, and his endeavor henceforth should be to 
make this movement as mechanically uniform as pos- 
sible, studying carefully the results which he secures 
from it. 

A semi-snap shot and a rapid swing may readily 
merge into one another. The gunner may throw 
up his weapon with a view to making a snap shot. 



232 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

but finding the bird has passed his gun he must 
needs swing after it. In the same way when intend- 
ing to place his piece upon the line of the bird's 
flight he might fall below it, being then obliged 
both to swing with the bird and to raise his gun to 
intersect its flight. 

The two styles of aiming are readily used in 
conjunction, also, as in live pigeon shooting where 
the shooter ordinarily makes a practical snap with 
the first barrel and a rapid swing with the second. 
A like system is preferred by the crack field shot 
who snaps with his first barrel before the game is 
at top speed, and then swings on with the second 
should he miss. One thing must forever be borne 
in mind by the swinging shot and that is never to 
check the gun when pulling the trigger. 

In upland shooting upon such game as quail, 
snipe, chickens, partridge, and woodcock, birds that 
rise near the gun, nearly every shot can be taken 
without any allowance for lead or elevation, it 
being merely necessary to swing upon the line of 
flight past the game and fire with the result of kill- 
ing nine birds out of ten which is a pretty good 
percentage in any event. The truth is that in such 
work, especially in the brush, there is no time to 
think of allowance for lead, but this can always be 
secured automatically by swinging, and therein is 
the advantage over any description of snap shot. 

There remains to be described the deliberate 
swing. It fits in with the old one-eye manner 



SNAP-SHOOTTXG AND SWING 233 

of aiming and is becoming antiquated along 
with it. With the deliberate swing the game 
is first covered usually by throwing the line 
of sight in front of it, and then moving with 
the target, at the proper distance in advance 
until the trigger is pulled. The principle involved 
is to maintain the requisite lead while the trigger 
is being pressed, continuing the swing at the same 
rate until the charge is out of the gun. In theory 
this system of aiming is the most accurate of all, 
because whether the trigger is pressed instantly or 
dwelt upon the pattern will with like certainty reach 
the desired lead. For instance if the line of aim 
is traveling three feet in advance of the line of flight, 
which distance is maintained until the. shot are on 
the way, it cannot matter whether the trigger is 
pressed in one-hundredth of a second or six-hund- 
redths. 

Obviously with this system of aiming no gain is 
made by the swing and the same allowance for 
speed and distance is required as though the target 
was snapped. 

The trouble with this mode of aiming is that it 
develops a very slow, poky, pottering style. There 
being no precise moment when the trigger must be 
pulled, the gunner almost invariably acquires the 
ill habit of dwelling upon the trigger. For this 
reason the deliberate swing cannot be used upon 
any game that is quick in its movements, that 
swerves and dodges like a snipe or a quail. Hence 



234 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

such a slow system of aiming is not adapted to 
anything except waterfowl or such birds as are seen 
approaching and remain within gunshot some 
time. 

I have seen most excellent work upon wildfowl 
by those who swung deliberately in front of the 
target and am ready to believe that the style can 
be made very effective upon such birds. In duck 
shooting where the birds are passing and have ac- 
quired maximum speed it certainly has the advant- 
age of any sort of snap work. 

Nevertheless my advice to the beginner would be 
to acquire the rapid SAving. It accomplishes every- 
thing that can be done with the deliberate and does 
it quicker and better, with a minimum of nerve ex- 
penditure. It requires double the expenditure of 
nerve force to shoot deliberately as to pull quickly, 
and no man should endeavor to develop the slow 
style unless nature has made him steady and phleg- 
matic. 



CHAPTER IV 
PRIMARY LESSONS 

ALMOST every boy with an inborn taste for 
shooting will have learned to aim a gun 
and pull trigger before he becomes old 
enough to tramp widely afield or handle a fowling 
piece. Emphatically is this true of the youth so 
fortunate as to be born in the country. However, 
there may be youngsters with the ill luck to be 
crowded by houses and people all their lives, with 
whom the longing to hunt and shoot must be de- 
ferred to more mature years. The city boy, whose 
instincts, waiting on opportunity, must needs sur- 
vive all urban temptations, makes the most deter- 
mined and enthusiastic of sportsmen when finally 
stock and shoulder fit together. Hungry for the 
fields and the whistle of birds' wings, he never 
gets enough from twenty years to his three score 
and ten. With a view to assisting him as much as 
I may in his first lessons this chapter is written. 

An old disused barn in the country is a great 
place for preliminary practice with a shotgun. Se- 
cure some large sheets of paper, blacken the center, 

235 



236 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

and tack them up on the barn. Shoot at twenty 
yards because at that distance the pattern will not 
spread too much to easily observe its effect. Select 
very lightly loaded shells for this kind of work, 
two and one-half drams of power are enough and 
lighter loads are better if they can be procured. 
Recoil always appears more severe when the target 
is stationary, and it takes practice so to hold the 
weapon that the arms and hands absorb most of 
the jar. The object now is to acquire confidence in 
yourself and the gun, carefully guarding against a 
tendency to flinch which is liable to develop into a 
most annoying habit, nearly fatal to good wing- 
shooting. 

A few shots should enable the learner to place 
his pattern regularly upon the center of the target. 
When this can be done with a deliberate aim begin 
snapping. Throw the gun quickly to the shoulder, 
pointed at the target, anci Avithout checking the mo- 
tion raise it to the center and fire as you come up. 
If the trigger fails to yield at the exact time, take 
the piece down, throw it up and try again. What 
you are striving for in this is a correct trigger pull, 
the lock working precisely on time, without any 
checking the gun for a second sight or any attempt 
to hold it still upon the target. 

An axiom of shotgun shooting is that the arm is 
never to be held still upon anything — in this dif- 
fering radically from the rifle. The trigger should 
be pressed, therefore, without checking the regular 



PRIMARY LESSONS 237 

rising movement of the barrels, the puUing and 
upward movement of the sight being so well timed 
that the discharge will take place just before the 
center is covered. 

Press the trigger, not by any conscious crooking 
of the forefinger, but by tightening the grip of both 
hands, the one pushing forward and the other draw- 
ing back. This is not only the right manner of 
pulling trigger on a shotgun, but tightening the 
grip of the hands enables the gunner to catch the 
recoil just as the blow of a fist is Avarded off before 
it gathers momentum. 

Having learned to strike the mark with a straight 
upward snap, as directed, now begin swinging on 
from side to side, first from the right and then 
from the left. Swing evenly past the target and 
pull as the line of sight goes by, being careful not 
to check up at the moment of firing. Probably this 
shooting with right and left swing will need practice 
to get the desired accuracy, but keep at it until 
the charge regularly reaches its mark. Swing slow» 
ly at first, but later increase the speed until the 
center' can be struck with the piece moving smart- 
ly. Doubtless with a rapid swing a tendency will 
be noted for the charge to pass the center of aim, 
but that can be avoided by pulling quicker which is 
one of the things to be learneci. 

With proficiency, vary the line of swing with 
every shot, sometimes coming on from the right, 
again from the left, then straight up and quarter- 



238 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

ing. These lessons are the foundation of wing- 
shooting, so take plenty of time with them and do 
not expect to accomplish everything in one day. 
Twenty-five shots are enough for one practice since 
among other things you must develop nerve force 
rather than expend it to the point of exhaustion. 
Remember that half the people who go afield never 
learn to shoot, and a large share of the other spend 
the remainder of their shooting days trying to erad- 
icate the bad habits acquired in early youth. 

Being able to strike your target with a gun 
moving fast or slow, with the line of sight swing- 
ing in every direction except down, you now have 
command of the gun and can take up the second 
problem, exchanging the stationary for a flying tar- 
get. Here is where shooting schools are an ad- 
vantage since they have a movable target which 
travels across the barn at any desired angle, with 
a rate of speed that can be regulated from very 
slow to as fast as a bird flies. The benefit of a 
flying target with a background that would in- 
stantly show the impact of the pattern is not to be 
doubted, faults of holding being detected at once. 
However shooting schools are not a very common 
Institution in this country, though in their place we 
have the clay bird trap and artificial targets. 

Having access to the grounds of a trap shooting 
club, go there for practice. If possible enlist the 
services of some more experienced friend who can 
point out your errors and instruct you as to where 



PRIMARY LESSONS 239 

to hold. Stand up close to the trap as you like and 
take only easy, straightaway, low flying birds in 
the beginning, later changing to quartering targets. 
Becoming skilled enough to hit these, go out into 
the fielci and have the birds thrown past you at 
diflferent distances to one side and the other. 

Endeavor to obtain every description of shot that 
is likely to be afforded by field shooting. Have the 
birds thrown while walking up on the trap with gun 
down in its ordinary carrying position, and instruct 
the trapper to start his bird at unexpected times, 
even when your back is turned, when he should of 
course warn you as the target starts. A like method 
should be followed when the gun is out in the field. 
Naturally the nearer conditions can be made to 
approach field shooting the more valuable the prac- 
tice. Getting behind the traps, with gun to shoulder, 
and shooting at birds always at the same angle of 
flight teaches very little except mechanical regularity 
of performance which can be acquired at the barn. 
But rightly used artificial targets can be made a 
very beneficial experience. 

The English method is to mount the traps in a 
tower from which the birds are thrown over the 
shooter's head and past him. Such practice would 
prove very helpful to the inexperienced duck shot, 
as it is with the British driven game. Unfortunate- 
ly our gun clubs never mount their traps in a tower 
or endeavor to teach anything except the making 
of big scores. For this reason a man may become 



240 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

an expert at the traps and yet possess but a trifling 
amount of skill in the field. 

The writer, a country boy, with no clay targets to 
shoot at, got his first lessons in pass shooting by 
means of an arrow-shaped piece of wood known as 
a dart. The dart is driven by means of a short 
stick, similar to the rod of a fly fisherman, though 
not so long and limber. This rod has a short, 
strong line with a knot in the end which engages 
with a notch cut into the dart about one-third from 
the point; the dart being cast by means of an 
overhead swing the same as in throwing a fly. 
Our dart can be made of light, cheap wood, from 
three to five feet long, with a large, flat head and 
a broad shank. It can be sent a distance of one 
hundred and fifty yards, with a velocity in the be- 
ginning of its flight higher than that attained by any 
bird. 

The object is to strike the broad head of the dart 
and if the charge falls back anywhere else along its 
length the novice knows that he has not made suf- 
ficient allowance for speed and distance. When 
thrown rapidly the flight of this projectile is prac- 
tically level, neither does it lose velocity so quickly 
as an artificial clay bird. The dart can be sent 
at any desired angle except straight away from the 
gun. Practice at the dart is especially good train- 
ing for flight shooting at wildfowl, and the boy who 
has become expert in striking the head of a shaft 
traveling a hundred and fifty feet a second will 



PRIMARY LESSONS 241 

have little trouble in connecting with ducks or any 
bird of similar flight. Of course a good assistant is 
necessary to this kind of practice, but any athletic 
boy will enjoy casting the dart as much as the gunner 
will shooting at it. 

Shooting at clay birds as they are commonly 
thrown at gun club meets is not without benefit to 
the upland gunner, but the experience avails the 
marsh shooter very little; indeed, his acquired habit 
of holding close to his birds is very hard to over- 
come even when he has learned where to hold. 
Not so the man who shoots at a dart which may be 
traveling two hundred feet a second; he necessarily 
learns to get out in front — away out. 

A hand trap is a convenience where club grounds 
and traps may not be available. They throw the 
same clay birds as the ground traps, but are held 
in the hand which enables the target to be sent in 
any direction. Good practice can be made by having 
the assistant throw the bird at unexpected times 
when both are walking along. The shooter thus 
learns to be alert, promptly bringing up his gun to 
take the bird that rises without warning. The trap- 
per may walk behind and send his target past the 
gun, or even be hidden by hedge and cover in which 
case he should call sharply when starting the bird. 

Keep up the snapping and swinging practice at 
the stationary target, at the clay birds, and the dart 
until expert. It will teach you just as much as get- 
ting out into the field and banging away at non- 



242 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

game birds, which is a very unsportsmanhke thing 
to do as will be discovered should it ever be attempt- 
ed in the presence of a veteran bird hunter. Be- 
sides shooting song birds is generally forbidden by 
law. 

In all this time do not forget that your endeavor 
is to make the gun a sort of third arm that will 
point anywhere you wish as readily as the hand can 
be thrown In that direction. When no other prac- 
tice is available, take up the gun in your room or 
back yard, and placing some empty shells in the 
chambers, exercise your pointing skill by throwing 
the piece up quickly, covering some object and pull- 
ing the triggers. This Is a very valuable drill, alike 
beneficial to the tyro and the expert. Indeed you 
can hardly get too much of it, only do not be care- 
less with the work but put heart Into It. We have 
all laughed about the Englishman who raises 
his walking stick to sight every bird that flies past, 
but really the Briton is right, for there Is horse 
sense in just that kind of practice. 

In your target shooting at the barn you may dis- 
cover that the firing can be accomplished with great- 
er precision by stopping the gun at the exact Instant 
of pressing the trigger, but do not allow that to in- 
fluence you or change your scheme of pulling trigger 
with a moving gun. A dangerous habit may become 
fixed, one that will have to be overcome later when 
it is found necessary for the arm to keep pace with 



PRIMARY LESSONS 243 

the swiftest flying game. Furthermore there is the 
second barrel to be remembered. 

The barn is also a convenient background in 
training to acquire second barrel habits. The right 
use of the second cartridge is to have it follow the 
first Invariably where the first barrel has crippled 
or missed, unless two birds have sprung at once 
and you expect to make a double. When this Is 
the case make no pause to observe the effect of the 
first shot but continue the swing of the tubes until 
they cover the second target. 

Put up two targets on the barn for second barrel 
practice, placing them at first on a horizontal line 
about twenty feet apart. Fire at the right hand 
target and without stopping the swing cover the 
second mark and shoot again. You will shortly 
learn In doing this that some time Is required to re- 
cover from the recoil of the first shot, and the gun 
will be thrown out of line. But utilize this time 
in moving onto the second bull's-eye which should 
be sighted as soon as the piece Is under control and 
moving steadily again. 

As the practice continues change the position of 
the targets, sometimes shooting at the right hand 
first and again at the left; then place one above the 
other at different angles and various distances apart. 
Quicken the time as you become expert until not over 
a half a second Is required to get onto the second, 
pull, and shoot. A lightning second barrel shot can 



244 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

swing on with his second barrel and shoot accurate- 
ly in a quarter of a second, which quarter second 
time is the standard of rapiciity which the novice 
should set for himself. 

The barn with large sheets of paper will indicate 
results of this rapid swinging fire more definitely 
than any live or clay birds, so continue this work 
until results are perfect, quick time being uniformly 
maintained with absolute accuracy. Keep the piece 
swinging after the second shot the same as the first. 

After the practice I have described the novice 
should have little trouble in connecting with a cer- 
tain number of birds, either in the uplands or marsh, 
the first time he goes afield. There is no greater 
difficulty in placing the pattern upon a quail than 
in striking the clay target, except for the added ex- 
citement caused by whirring wings, and the anxiety 
to make a good showing. 

Overanxiety to appear well or show shooting 
skill to your companion is a fruitful source of miss- 
ing, not only by the beginner, but by the older hand 
alike. Indeed if oxeranxiety and flinching could be 
eliminated the majority of us would do fifty per 
cent, better execution. It is well therefore for the 
student of wing-shooting to go afield with a veteran 
shot in securing his first experience, one that cannot 
be considered in any sense a rival gunner, but who 
is anxious to see that his young friend performs well 
rather than to display his own skill. If such com- 
panionship and instruction are unavailable, then go 



PRIMARY LESSONS 245 

alone and study out the problems in your own 
way. 

Be very careful not to quicken the time you have 
been acquiring, but rather shoot more deliberately, 
remembering that any bird you fire at so quickly as 
not to be able to recall where the gun was held Is 
simply a lost opportunity, no matter whether the 
bird was killed or missed. The only method of ac- 
quiring a solid foundation for future success, Is to 
make your mental calculations quickly and then use 
your gun to prove your judgment. In plainer 
phrase do not shoot until you have first decided 
where to hold, and then put the charge right there 
with all the skill you possess, making a mental 
memorandum of every move the bird made, the gun 
processes necessary to cover him, and the results. 

Do not be hurried because your companion Is 
quickest, for every human being learns to walk be- 
fore he can run. You could not reasonably expect 
to solve problems in mathematics as readily as a 
college professor, and take my word for It wing- 
shooting Is no less difficult than mathematics. 

Do not let misses disturb you, for in the begin- 
ning as much can be learned from missing as from 
hitting, since you have at least been taught where 
not to hold. 7'he man who cannot learn through 
his mistakes will never know a great deal, but be 
sure to analyze errors thoroughly, and know rea- 
sons, otherwise experience and practice will leave 
you about where you started. 



246 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

It Is a fortunate thing for the earnest young 
sportsman that his mind is impressionable and his 
memory most tenacious. I can clearly recall the 
shots that I made twenty-five years ago; just how 
the bird broke cover, the course of his flight, where 
the gun came to the shoulder, how much It led when 
the trigger was pulled, the very weed that the bird 
struck as he fell, even the clumps of feathers, sifting 
down, are still before me. Opportunity and circum- 
stances being similar, I could again repeat the shots 
in the same old way. None but the young could be 
impressed so graphically, and no others learn with 
such ease. 

It Is not necessary that the student should possess 
such memory, however, but the moment a shot is 
fired every detail should be fixed In his mind. The 
better to do this make a systematic mental 
diary. Here the bird arose so many paces from 
the gun, he was at this point when the weapon came 
up, he bore away from the shooter at an angle of 
forty-five degrees, slightly rising; the gun came up 
just so much behind him, and he flew so many 
yards before being covered and fired upon with a 
lead of two feet; result a kill. Try to recall the 
exact position of the flying target when the mental 
estimate for lead was made, and if the bird flew 
farther than you think he should before being shot 
perhaps the cause can be detected. Remember that 
a lesson Is of no value after it is forgotten and do 
not forget. 



PRIMARY LESSONS 247 

The very first thing to be recorded after the mind 
recovers from the strain of firing is to note where 
the gun Is then pointed. It should swing right along 
on the path of the bird's flight, and if involuntarily 
checked at the shot, that is something to be studied 
and corrected. The average shot never learns to 
continue his swing upon the line of flight after the 
bird is dead, but be ambitious to do what the aver- 
age man cannot. 

At the close of the day's shooting, take your 
mental diagrams and write them all out on paper. 
Mark upon the sheet where the bird rose, where 
you stood, and every evolution of target and gun 
as previously directed. Study these diagrams and 
fix in your own mind why you killed and why you 
missed. If the shot was a scratch or accidental 
write that down, for many such shots are made in 
the course of a season, and these daily diagrams are 
Intended for future study. 

If you failed to hit give that drawing especial at- 
tention, marking the place where you should have 
held. When at a loss as to where the shot should 
have been directed, probably your shooting friend 
can set you right. Above all do not again hold 
for the exact spot that previously resulted In a fail- 
ure, unless you can prove to your own satisfaction 
that the miss resulted from other causes than faulty 
lead. 

If the gunner cannot recall his point of aim at the 
instant of firing that is something for grave study. 



248 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

It may be that his line of aim is swinging so fast 
that it is impossible to govern it; he really cannot 
tell where he is aiming at any precise moment from 
the time the weapon comes to the shoulder until 
it Is discharged. Again perhaps it is a case of un- 
conscious flinching, and this is always to be suspected 
where the shooter cannot see where his shot has 
gone. 

I can only repeat again, use the utmost care not 
to make the same mistake in a like way. Study 
and analyze, and your hits will soon teach you to 
kill, while your misses will tell you how not to miss 
again. When desirous of showing well, learn to 
select the bird that you know how to kill, the one 
that is easy for you, be it straightaway, left quar- 
terer, or what not. But if simply desirous of im- 
proving your shooting, let the easy birds go and 
choose only the hard ones, those that you miss fre- 
quently. 

Do not permit any overweening desire to appear 
easy and graceful influence you, but shoot every shot 
with all your might. Put strength into the work 
first, and by and by grace will take care of itself. 
You are out to develop nerve force, and the only 
way to do that is to use what you have; rather than 
fire a shot indifferently, quit altogether. Nerve 
force can be developed by using it just the same 
as muscles are strengthened by being exercised. 



CHAPTER V 

SOME SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 

Second Barrel Shooting — The Effects of Re- 
coil, Flinching, Concentration, 
Self-Confidence 

PERHAPS the greatest weakness of the aver- 
age field shot lies in his use of the second 
barrel. From my observation only the odd 
man can place his second charge with prompt ac- 
curacy, this being particularly true of clay bird per- 
formers who from habit fire but one barrel. The 
observation applies with equal force to the ordinary 
sportsman, not one in ten of whom has a deadly 
second barrel. Having faithfully endeavored to as- 
certain the reasons for this, I will briefly set forth 
my conclusions. 

The best second barrel shots that I have seen 
were men trained to live pigeon and wildfowl work, 
varieties of shooting more generally practiced 
twenty years ago than to-day. Live bird shooting 
at the traps is now generally forbidden by law, and 
the fowl are not distributed so widely as they once 

249 



250 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

were. The pigeon shooter commonly fired both bar- 
rels at every bird, often for the sake of safety, when 
the second charge was really not necessary to kill. 
The distance he was placed from the traps, from 
twenty-eight to thirty-three yards, made it imperative 
that he send in his loads with the utmost dispatch, 
a quick half-snap with the first and a rapid swing 
on with the second barrel. Then, too, under some 
rules the boundary was so short that the bird must 
be killed in the fraction of a second or it might fall 
out of bounds. 

Trained to such conditions the pigeon shot 
cracked in his second barrel involuntarily, without 
a second thought or the least delay to verify the ef- 
fect of the first charge. A hundred or even a 
thousand dollars might depend upon that second 
barrel driving in true and fast, the man who could 
not learn to place it in a quarter of a second soon 
dropping out of the game. 

Though the shooting was from unknown ground 
traps, it was nothing unusual for a fast bird to be 
caught within twenty feet of where he sprang, and 
should the first charge fail the second would follow 
ere the pigeon had gone five yards farther. 

Such rapid work as this is not absolutely essential 
on game, nevertheless it is the standard of excel- 
lence which the field sportsman should endeavor to 
attain. The gunner who cannot deliver his second 
charge in from a quarter to a half second after the 
, first will not find it to avail him much, and as a rule 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 2 5 i 

will fall Into the common habit of letting the bird 
go after It has escaped the first pattern. 

The wildfowl hunter Is a good second barrel man 
also, and equally with the pigeon shooter from 
habit. These birds often fly In flocks which necessi- 
tates the use of both barrels; additionally many sin- 
gle ducks are struck without being killed outright 
which demands the use of the second barrel before 
the fowl can reach the water and dive. While the 
wlldfowler Is not so sharp as the pigeon shot about 
pulling either his first or second load he Is no less 
accurate and positive about It. Like the man of 
the traps, he knows before his piece comes to the 
shoulder that both barrels are to be fired, and hence 
there Is never a delay to note what the first charge 
has accomplished. 

The general run of upland shots go at the matter 
differently. Almost Invariably they seem to believe 
that the first barrel will surely kill, the Immediate 
brain Impression when they see the bird still going 
on being one of surprise; recovering from this, they 
either fire the second barrel so quickly as to prac- 
tically have no aim, or a slow, pottering second is 
sent in after the target is out of range. Either the 
unaimed or the pottering second charge is so gen- 
erally ineffective that the gunner soon comes to de- 
pend entirely upon his first load. 

Here is the trouble so far as I can analyze it. 
If the second barrel is to do perfect execution, the 
brain must complete its work before the first shot 



252 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

is fired. There is absolutely no time to think be- 
tween the first and second shots, the mind barely 
retaining sufficient control to prevent the shot going 
in when the bird is unquestionably a dead one. In- 
deed in the case of pigeon shots, the barrel might 
be delivered involuntarily whether the bird were 
dead or alive, this not altogether for safety as has 
been supposed, but rather because the finger was 
predirected to pull and there was no time to think 
or to stop it. 

I have had the same thing happen to me in field 
shooting, when having made up my mind previous 
to delivering the first shot that the bird was a hard 
one and would probably escape, I could not avoid 
sending in the second barrel automatically after the 
bird was dead. This never happens except from 
brain orders that antedated the discharge of the 
first barrel. This is an extreme style of second bar- 
rel work, such promptness not being requisite in the 
field, but it is far more effective than the lame, halt- 
ing method generally seen. So true is this that if I 
were coaching a novice in the use of his second 
charge he would be required to pull it invariably, 
alike when the bird was killed or untouched. 

It follows from the foregoing that where the sec- 
ond barrel is to be made deadly there must be no 
pause in the aiming swing of the gun which should 
travel right along on the path of the bird's flight 
ready to be discharged the instant the gunner re- 
covers from the recoil of the previous shot. The 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 253 

swing should be kept so true to the line of the bird's 
flight that in place of the arm hanging where first 
fired, it should be pointing within a foot or two of 
the target when the shooter has steadied himself 
sufficiently to aim again. On the other hand, hav- 
ing checked his piece, waiting to note the effect of 
the first load, the marksman will find his arm point- 
ing so far from the bird that he either has to move 
the line of swing so rapidly that it becomes uncon- 
trollable, or a slow swing will permit the game to 
get beyond range. 

We will take the flight of a quail as an example. 
Should it break cover at twenty yards, it would on 
the average travel some forty feet before being 
fired upon, which would place Bob White distant 
thirty-three yards for the right barrel, delivered in 
less than a second. Now waiting to realize that 
the game has been missed would give the quarry 
another quarter of a second or fifteen feet; then, 
with a motionless gun, swinging on again from the 
previous point of aim will consume an additional 
half second, thirty feet, or a total of forty-five feet 
from where the first shot was fired, placing the quail 
forty-eight yards from the gun for the second bar- 
rel. On the contrary had the swing of the gun 
been maintained automatically the second shot 
should have been placed within twenty feet of the 
first, catching the bird when he was distant forty 
yards and still within reach of a good gun. None 
of the figures has been overdrawn and they can 



254 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

readily be verified by observing the efforts of sports- 
men afield. 

The Effect of Recoil 

It might be argued that it doesn't require the 
fourth of a second for the mind to reaHze a miss 
which the eye can see instantly. So it would not 
except for the effect of shock upon the human 
brain, the shock of recoil. Furthermore, when the 
mind has just concluded a strenuous piece of work, 
like aiming and firing a gun, it pauses an instant 
before tackling a fresh problem. Combining this 
cessation of brain recording with the shock of recoil 
which causes the brain to cease acting entirely for 
a space of time, however small, and we have a loss 
of at least a quarter of a second — sometimes more. 
In fact so far has the bird flown meantime that 
the gunner despairs of being able to reach it and 
so witholds his fire. 

Recoil and its effects upon the shooter are worthy 
of careful study. It affects every one, but in vary- 
ing degrees. It has been observed that the most 
noted pigeon shots are men of strong physique, 
some of them seeming almost impervious to recoil, 
on the same principle that a pugilist might without 
blinking an eye take a blow on the jaw which would 
render an ordinary man unconscious. The jar of a 
shotgun's recoil and the blow of a fist differ only 
in the extent of shock and the time needed to re- 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 255 

cover. The shotgun may knock you out for perhaps 
not more than the tenth of a second, while the fist 
blow puts you away for ten minutes. 

Nevertheless, no matter how hardy the consti- 
tution of the man, even a John L. Brewer, there is 
a shorter or longer space of time after a shot is 
fired when he can do nothing except he does it in- 
voluntarily, for the brain has been momentarily 
shocked into a state of coma. Notwithstanding 
this the nerves and muscles can be taught to ac- 
complish orders given previous to this shock, main- 
taining certain actions automatically, or as we say 
from habit. The boxer does this when he starts a 
blow and sends it in after receiving such a jarring 
slap himself that he cannot remember when his 
own fist landed. If anyone doubts the effect of re- 
coil shock upon the brain, let him try to recall the 
movements of his gun muzzle immediately subse- 
quent to firing. 

In the case of the writer his first distinct knowl- 
edge of where his gun is directed is when he finds 
it pointing below the target. Reasoning the matter 
out, he knows that the muzzle first flew up and then 
reacted downward, but from anything the brain 
has actually recordeci it simply dropped below the 
point of aim. ^Accepting the foregoing as true we 
can see the need of acquiring a habit of maintain- 
ing the swing, such an absolutely fixed habit as to 
require no direct brain control. 



256 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



Flinching 

However, the shock of recoil doesn't interfere 
with the work of a gunner so much as its anticipa- 
tion, an anticipation that causes flinching and dodg- 
ing before the shot is fired. Flinching after the 
recoil takes place would not merit much considera- 
tion, in fact would not be flinching. Flinching in- 
terferes so greatly with the delivery of both the 
first and second barrels, especially the latter, that 
we must analyze and give it full consideration. 

The commonly accepted conclusion is that in 
shooting flinching is due entirely to the fear of pun- 
ishing recoil. It is supposed to consist of blinking 
and dodging to such an extent as to deflect the muz- 
zle, one man perhaps merely blinking while another 
dodges, or possibly blinks and dodges. My own 
conclusion is that flinching cannot in all cases be 
analyzed so simply as that. 

Recoil undoubtedly is a prime factor in the trou- 
ble, but the sharp report of the gun has its influence 
also, for people with a tendency to flinch have noted 
an improvement in their work where a longer barrel 
was used, thus carrying the stunning noise farther 
away from the head. The loud report may cause 
more actual pain also than even the jolt of the butt 
stock. Mr. Roosevelt illustrates this in "African 
Game Trails" when telling how the heavy report 
of his elephant rifle caused bleeding of the nose 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 257 

and ears of a companion who stood beside him. 
It is claimed for the Maxim Silencer that it greatly 
lessens the inclination to flinch. 

The above causes of flinching are obvious, but 
many flinch when shooting a 22 rifle which has 
neither recoil nor any undue noise. This might be 
ascribed to habit, but people dodge who are not in 
the habit of shooting at all. 

Careful study of the matter has led me to believe 
that flinching is as much due to the strain of aiming 
and firing as any other cause. It requires a highly 
concentrated effort to hold either a shotgun or rifle 
perfectly steady and pull the trigger. The mind 
and nerves may not be able to sustain this strain for 
any great length of time, and certainly both are glad 
to be relieved of it as quickly as possible. Some- 
times the brain gives up the task just an instant too 
soon, permitting the muscles to have their will of 
the piece, and of where it might afterward be point- 
ed neither the eye nor the brain will take any cog- 
nizance. 

Being overstrained, mind and nerves go on a 
strike, quit temporarily, making no further records 
until after the discharge takes place. Of whatever 
happens during this interim the shooter has no 
knowledge, though another man standing near can 
observe perfectly and tell him, generally much to 
the gunner's surprise, and often little to his convic- 
tion. Whatever the eye might see, if the brain re- 
frained from making any record, that particular 



258 THEAMERICAN SHOTGUN 

thing never happened so far as the gunner's mind 
and memory are concerned. This is what renders 
it extremely difficult to cure flinching, the fact that 
so far as the marksman's own knowledge is con- 
cerned it never occurred. He did not know it and 
could not know it except from the observation of 
others and a reasonable conviction based upon the 
effects of the shot. 

Moreover the brain some-times makes records 
with perfect clearness of things which never oc- 
curred. For instance, the shooter notes the speed 
of flight of the target, the velocity with which his 
line of swing is traveling to cover the mark, and cal- 
culates where he must hold in order to connect, but 
just at this instant the brain ceases to act, and the 
movements it has recorded as having taken place 
were never in fact accomplished. The result is a 
miss which to the marksman must always remain an 
absolute mystery. 

The duration of time of which the marksman 
has no record, that is the space in which his brain 
is practically paralyzed, varies greatly with differ- 
ent individuals, though I am impressed with the 
belief that everyone is affected without exception. 
It might not last longer than the twentieth of a sec- 
ond, a time so short that it would have no practical 
influence upon gunner's work, or it might have 
such duration as to make him very slow with the 
second barrel. 

Moreover the mind may take cognizance of what 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 259 

Is occurring without being able to take the initiative; 
It can note what is transpiring without having the 
power to give active commands. Afterwards the 
shooter can remember what took place and see 
where he missed an opportunity, but cannot tell 
why he failed to take advantage of it. We note 
examples of this kind in ordinary life: someone may 
neglect to act at a critical period and we say he 
lacked presence of mind — the shock caused a cessa- 
tion of brain control. The brain may either not 
have been acting at all, or it may have been like 
the engine of an automobile that Is pounding away 
with the clutch disengaged. In such an event. If 
muscles and nerves accomplish anything they must 
do It automatically; the machine could only go for- 
ward from previous momentum. 

That Is the point we are trying to drive home In 
shooting. For an Infinitesimal or greater length of 
time when a shot Is fired the brain having lost con- 
trol under shock, the muscles must be taught to 
carry on certain actions without conscious effort and 
yet with precision. There is no question but they 
can be trained to do this and it must be done If any 
great brilliance In marksmanship Is ever to be at- 
tained. The greater the effect of recoil upon the 
gunner, the longer space of time in which the brain 
fails to function, the more thoroughly must nerves 
and muscles be taught to do things automatically, 
or Instinctively, or unconsciously, call It what you 
will. 



26o THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

Could training of this nature be made perfect, 
the shooter might sight his target, throw up his gun 
to cover the bird, mentally calculate the point where 
it would be killed, that is where line of aim and 
line of flight would connect, and then all brain ef- 
fort having ceased the shot would be fired at the 
given point, and the piece carried on to where the 
second charge was to be sent. 

The writer has seen something similar to this 
accomplished numerous times in night shooting. The 
bird having shown only for an instant, giving its 
line and speed of flight, then disappeared utterly, 
but was killed with almost the same certainty as 
though it had been in plain sight. Naturally no 
second barrel could have been fired under such cir- 
cumstances, because the result of the first barrel 
would not be seen, but had the gunner become 
aware in some way that he had missed, he might 
still have killed the bird with his remaining load, 
the whole mental effort being matured in the short 
space of time the bird was in sight. 

The gist of this is that flinching, the cause of 
which is overstraining mind and nerves, can be cured 
by rigid training, but where the cause is an actual 
fear of punishment, either sound or jab, it is a dif- 
ferent matter. The trite saying that prevention is 
better than cure applies with special force here. Had 
I the coaching of a lady or sensitive lad in shotgun 
shooting, no heavily charged twelve bore would 
ever be tolerated; I would choose a twenty gauge 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 261 

of more than normal weight, with barrels thirty or 
thirty-two inches long, and charge them lightly. Bad 
eggs are never so laid, but chemistry can do little 
for them after they have passed a certain stage; 
granting we have fair eyesight, nature has kindly 
endowed us with every power necessary to the mak- 
ing of a good shot, but very often indeed we foil 
her good intentions. 

Concentration 

Concentration is not a quality of an untrained 
mind. The expert shot may not know Latin, Greek 
or mathematics, but his mind has been trained to 
concentrate more absolutely than would be needful 
in solving algebraic problems. Whatever his 
knowledge of gunnery, a man cannot be considered 
reliable with either rifle or smoothbore without the 
ability to fix his mind upon one thing to the utter 
exclusion of everything else in the world. 

A rifleman who shoots upon the range with his 
fellows must so train himself that he will not hear 
the gun that is discharged within four feet of his 
head. The pigeon shot who could not prevent his 
mind from dwelling upon previous misses would 
never excel in the sport. I have known two crack 
quail shots to cross their guns without knowing it 
when a bevy broke, and one of them shot off the 
muzzle of the other's gun. If, after selecting one 
bird of a bevy at which to fire, the marksman still 



262 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

sees other birds, the chances are that he misses them 
all. The shooter who can see trees that are liable 
to interfere with his aim would probably miss the 
target were the trees absent. 

Some sportsmen cannot shoot well in company 
from inability to free their minds of some faint 
knowledge of what companions may be doing. 
When two men have both decided to fire at a bird, 
and the knowledge of what the other Is to do is 
known to both, the bird will be more likely to es- 
cape than if but the one gun was fired — this because 
the minds of the gunners are divided between aim- 
ing and a consciousness of what the other gun is 
doing. One bird of a bevy is harder to kill than a 
bird rising singly for a similar reason. The match 
shooter who could feel an earthquake while aiming 
a shot would be the wrong man to place money upon. 

A perfect control of the mind and nervous or- 
ganization Is essential to either field or trap shoot- 
ing, and the latter must hear what is being said 
about him without comprehending it. Making irri- 
tating remarks in connection with a competitor's 
shooting is an old trick of pigeon shots. The surest 
way to rattle a field shot is to Induce him to discuss 
his misses while still shooting. 

I remember one very clever quail shot that I took 
the job of rattling as a joke. His misses were 
usually shots that went low which caused him to 
fall into my scheme very innocently by agreeing that 
I should observe his work and call attention to 



SHOOTING PSYCHOLOGY 263 

every shot that went low. As soon as a bird 
arose I called, monotonously, "shoot high, shoot 
high." Very shortly he was missing nearly every 
bird fired upon and was a very thoroughly worried 
man. He afterwards told me that no sooner had 
the bird started than he could think of nothing but 
me and my infernal "shoot high". 

Another individual was slow with his second bar- 
rel and I consented to coach him. He was a pep- 
pery chap, but usually pretty reliable with his first 
barrel. When the bird jumped, I said, sharply, 
"second barrel, second barrel" with the certain re- 
sult of his rattling off both barrels without touching 
a feather. He flew into a rage finally. 

A good shot with a trained mind, capable of a 
high degree of concentration, would never have 
heard what I said. I have known men in 
brush shooting to strike their muzzles against a 
limb and push the branch along sufliciently to get an 
aim and kill the bird without knowing the limb was 
there until afterwards. With his mind divided a 
marksman can no more shoot straight than he could 
throw baseballs with both hands at the same time. 

Here are a few axioms to be remembered: When 
aiming see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, think 
of nothing except the work in hand. While shooting 
solve the problem that is before you, and not the 
one that is past. Always kill the first bird shot at 
if you have enough loads in your gun, and never 
mind the others. 



264 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



Self-Confidence 

In wing-shooting self-confidence is a great asset. 
When a bird springs, if there is any doubt in your 
mind as to your ability to kill, the result will proba- 
bly be a miss. A feeling must be ever present of 
absolute power to kill, a feeling born of previous 
success. Any feeling of confidence not born of past 
results is simply self-deception. The vain glorious 
fellow who believes that he can do anything with- 
out trying has the sort of faith that wouldn't deceive 
anyone except himself. 

If a novice could suddenly become miraculously, 
possessed of the knowledge of exactly where to 
hold, with the mechanical ability to handle his gun, 
he yet could not shoot from lack of confidence in 
his newly acquired powers. The only self-confi- 
dence built upon a solid foundation is that which 
comes from repeated, almost unvarying success. 
Confidence that comes from thoroughly tested abil- 
ity is the stock in trade of the expert and so long 
as he possesses it, he will shoot well. 

Overconfidence is a different matter, — a miss 
usually resulting from the marksman's conscious or 
unconscious belief that it is not necessary for him to 
put forth his full powers. Shoot with all your 
might, at the easy birds and the hard ones alike, 
quitting when becoming tired rather than to shoot 
on carelessly. 



CHAPTER VI 

SPEED OF FLIGHT— WHERE TO HOLD- 
JUDGING DISTANCES 

NO amount of mechanical ability to handle a 
gun, such skill as might be acquired in trap 
shooting, will ever make a crack field shot 
out of the man who cannot estimate distances 
accurately, or who would not know where to 
hold if he did. In treating the subject of 
speed of mark, distance of target, and amount 
of lead, the writer feels constrained to admit 
that no theoretical knowledge can take the 
place of experience — a world of experience. The 
knowledge that comes only with long years of shoot- 
ing is something that is nev^er received on a platter 
of gold, but is bought and well paid for by the 
years that have gone by; it is power that was stored 
by the water that has gone past the wheel forever. 
It is well that this is so, for if youth, with its 
irrepressible vitality, its muscles of iron and nerves 
of steel, might magically have the wisdom of age 
also, there would be no use for the veteran in this 
world — he would have to be Oslerized to make 

265 



266 THE AME RICAN SHOTGUN 

room. The best the author can do is to give such 
advice as may prevent the water from sHpping by 
without turning the wheel. 

Given the velocity of our projectile, the speed, 
distance, and angle on which our mark is traveling, 
and it is easy to work out the exact spot at which 
the aim must be taken in order to connect with the 
target. But, as has been shown in previous chap- 
ters, all our theories will be much modified and 
negatived by the different styles of shooting that 
men have acquired. Indeed so many factors have 
a bearing that it is rare for theory and practice to 
agree, and it is seldom that two skilled shots can 
be found who will not have divergent views about 
where to hold. 

Just how much the mathematical lead will have 
to be changed by the shooter's manner of swinging 
is something that everyone will have to decide for 
himself. The novice who manages by the rapidity 
of his swing to cut theoretical lead in half is on 
pretty safe ground. The scientific lead is given in 
these pages merely as a foundation for those who 
have not yet built a shooting structure of their own. 

The following table gives either the estimated or 
timed speed of flight of some of our common game 
birds, taken when they are in full plumage and 
power, after having flown such a distance as to 
have acquired full momentum. It may be noted 
that birds of the order of quail and grouse are 
much more uniform in rate of progress than wild- 



SPFFD OF FLIGHT 267 

fowl. Nature did not give the grouse family such 
wing powers as the migratory birds, the one style 
of flying they have developed giving a very regular 
velocity. It might be taken as almost axiomatic 
that the greater the strength of wing possessed by 
any bird, the more will his speed vary with his hu- 
mors and needs. Some hawks can stand still in the 
air, but they can also cut through it faster than any- 
thing that flies; the king bird ordinarily flies slowly, 
but he can dart like a flash of light when he wishes. 

The variations in flight speed of quail and grouse 
can be ascribed to wind and atmosphere rather than 
to the will of the bird. One of them might fly past 
you, running a hazard of both barrels, without ac- 
celerating his wing strokes a particle, though doubt- 
less he is as much frightened as any other bird. As 
much cannot be said of the duck tribe who sprint 
or loiter as the occasion demands, always appearing 
able to let out another link or two when danger 
is pressing. 

The velocities here given are taken in feet per 
second rather than miles per hour which is less 
readily comprehended or applied by the gunner. 



268 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



TABLE OF FLIGHTS. 

Bird. Feet per Second. Average. 

Quail 65 to 85 75 

Prairie chicken 65 to 85 75 

Ruffed grouse 60 to 90 75 

Dove 70 to 100 85 

Jack snipe 50 to 70 65 

Curlew 45 to 65 . 55 

Plovers 50 to 80 according to variety. 

Crow 35 to 55 45 

Mallard 55 to 90 75 

Black duck 55 to 90 75 

Spoonbill 55 to 85 70 

Pintail 60 to 100 80 

Wood duck 70 to 90 80 

Widgeon 80 to 100 90 

Gadwell 80 to 100 90 

Red head 110 to 130 120 

Bluewing Teal 120 to 140 130 

Greenwing Teal 100 to 130 115 

Canvasback 130 to 160 145 

Canada geese 100 to 120 110 

Brant, different varieties, average speed 100 

Some species of hawks have a speed of 200 feet a second. 

There may be much greater variation in the 
flight of some of these birds than could be given in 
any table. An old mallard might plug lazily along, 
looking for a place to alight and not travel above 
thirty feet a second; on the other hand he has a tre- 
mendous sprint when frightened. It might be said 
that given a good scare any of these ducks can reach 
maximum speed at will, and this sprinting 'flight is 
usually what the gunner has to make allowance for. 

Give a bluewing teal a forty-mile breeze behind 
him, have the little rascal dropping down with it, 
and he comes on so fast as to be simply unhitable — 
some writers have claimed a speed for him of a 



SPEED OF FLIGHT 269 

hundred and fifty miles an hour or two hundred and 
twenty feet a second. The canvasback, redhead and 
bluebill have a way of driving before a gale, too, 
that will be found fast enough in all conscience. 
Much of the fascination of wing-shooting comes 
from the fact that shots will always be afforded 
quite beyond skill of mortal man. 

On the contrary many wiklfowl are jumped, 
killed when hovering over clecoys, or shot while 
unsuspicious of danger anci moving slowly; enough 
of such shots are the rule to keep the tyro in good 
heart. Moreover many birds like snipe, quail, 
chickens, and grouse are generally killed before they 
have attained full speed, perhaps ninety per cent, of 
such birds falling before they have reached normal 
flight velocity. Generally speaking, upland birds 
are not shot while passing the gun at right angles, 
but are going straight away, quartering, or twisting. 
It follows that in the fields our gravest shooting 
problems are other than reckoning speed of flight, 
but on the marshes our ability to calculate distances 
both horizontal and vertical has full play. 

As a consequence wildfowl work may be said to 
be the most scientific wing-shooting in the world, 
while the expert of the uplands displays such un- 
canny quickness of perception that we can only ex- 
plain it as instinct. Comparing the work of the 
men who follow either of these branches of sport, 
we might say that the sportsman of the fields has 
much to unlearn ere he can perform creditably upon 



270 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



the web-feet, and the man of the duck boat has only 
a foundation for partridge shooting skill. Having 
learned to kill quail we can no more double up a 
whizzing canvasback than a man can play golf be- 
cause he has learned croquet, or a ninety per cent. 
clay saucer breaker can hit a jack snipe. 

Mathematical Lead 

The figures given below are based upon a shot 
charge having a mean velocity over a fifty foot 
course of one thousand feet; over a one hundred 
foot range, of nine hundred feet; and for the dis- 
tance of one hundred and fifty feet, eight hundred 
feet a second. Of course these calculations for shot 
velocity are only approximately correct, since they 
would alter with the size of the pellets, the larger 
shot maintaining a higher momentum at the longer 
ranges. Then, too, the initial velocity of the load 
might be greater or less than that given. Never- 
theless, as it would be obviously impossible to work 
out the problems to fit every different charge, with- 
out taking up the space of a book, these will do as 
well as any. 

No allowance has been made for the time re- 
quired to pull trigger, the action of the lock, or the 
time necessary for the charge to pass from breech 
to muzzle, these being variable quantities that would 
only render the matter more complex. Mathemati- 
cal lead, as here given, means simply the distance 



SPEED OF FLIGHT 271 

the bird would fly at his stated rate of speed while 
the shot were reaching him at the velocity men- 
tioned. 

A snipe, curlew, or plover, flying at the rate of 
sixty feet a second, would require a lead of two 
and one-half feet at fifty feet; five and five-ninth 
feet at one hundred feet; and nine and three-eighths 
feet at fifty yards. 

A quail, prairie chicken, ruffed grouse, or mal- 
lard, covering space at a speed of seventy-five feet 
a second, would have to be led three and three- 
quarter feet at fifty feet; eight and one-third feet at 
one hundred; and fourteen feet at fifty yards. 

A wood-duck, widgeon, or pintail flying ninety 
feet a second, would necessitate a lead of four and 
one-half feet at fifty feet; ten feet at one hundred; 
and at fifty yards sixteen and seven-eighths feet. 

A gadwell, greenwing, or wild goose traveling 
one hundred feet a second would call for a lead of 
five feet at fifty feet; eleven and one-ninth feet at 
one hundred; and eighteen and three-quarters feet at 
fifty yards. 

A bluewing teal, canvasback, or redhead, passing 
at the rate of one hundred and twenty feet a second 
would need a lead of six feet at a distance of fifty; 
thirteen and three-ninths at one hundred; and at 
fifty yards twenty-two and one-half feet. 

Should a canvasback or bluewing flash by at the 
rate of one hundred and fifty feet a second, which 
they doubtless sometimes do in a wind, the lead for 



272 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

fifty feet would be seven and one-half feet, that for 
one hundred, sixteen and two-thirds; for fifty yards 
twenty-eight and one-eighth feet. 

Granted that a hawk is able to fly two hundred 
feet a second, as stated, this means that over a fifty 
yard range the shot charge would travel but four 
times as fast as the bird, and the lead required to 
connect with him at the distance would be thirty- 
seven and one-half feet. Even in the case of many 
of the ducks the shot have a velocity barely eight 
times as great as the target. Bearing this in mind, 
the need of correctly estimating distance and lead 
may strike the reader with new force. 

It should be noted that these allowances for lead 
are all theoretical. The average experienced man, 
who fires with a rapidly swinging gun, would cut the 
given lead in half, and many expert wildfowlers 
would do better than that. It might be added 
here that any apparent lead greater than ten feet 
becomes pretty much guesswork. I have myself 
killed teal in a Minnesota gale by holding what I 
considered twenty feet ahead of them, but the feat 
was performed so seldom as to be readily recalled. 
It should be remembered that consciously giving a 
lead of twenty feet means really a much greater 
allowance if the gun is swinging true and fast. Nat- 
urally diflicult shots like those are the "home runs" 
of wing-shooting. 

It Is hardly necessary to state that all the calcula- 
tions here presented call for the bird's passing at 



SPEED OF FLIGHT 273 

right angles to the gun, any other angle of flight 
obviously changing the lead. 



Judging Distances 

Within shotgun range It Is a comparatively easy 
matter to judge distances along the ground, espe- 
cially stationary objects of recognized dimensions. 
Even birds awing that fly low nearly always pass 
a tree or something else that will afford us a basis 
for calculations. But with birds of unknown size, 
passing overhead, the matter assumes different pro- 
portions. 

As previously stated, In upland shooting, where 
the birds generally rise near us the matter of esti- 
mating distances need not concern us seriously. To 
be sure some shots will be missed through an incor- 
rect lead due to badly judged flight, but such chances 
will not occur often enough to make a great differ- 
ence in the size of the bag. 

When wildfowl are in question, however, the sub- 
ject Is one that cannot be studied too closely. Ducks 
frequently maintain a line of flight so regular that 
striking them could present no great difficulty if 
we knew how far they were away from the gun and 
exactly what lead to give them. Nine misses in 
ten upon the marsh are caused by faulty lead, which 
in turn must be attributed to poor judgment of dis- 
tance or speed of flight. 

Expert gunners estimate the distance of their 



274 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

mark, first, by knowing the kind of bird that is 
coming in and the size that it should appear at a 
given time. This makes it imperative that we should 
always be able to recognize the species of fowl that 
Is approaching, be It teal, mallard, or pintail, for 
we cannot reckon nearness by size unless the size 
is well known. Secondly, the closeness of wildfowl 
can be approximately figured by keenly observing 
their markings. The shooter may say that he knew 
the bird was within range because he could see the 
white on Its cheeks or the bars on Its wings. The 
third method Is to observe the apparent time re- 
quired for the fowl to pass the gun. A bird that is 
well out will seemingly be much longer in passing 
than he would If he whistled by our heads. 

One of the first things for a wlldfowler to learn is 
to recognize the kind of duck which Is approaching 
while It is yet at a distance. Until he can do this 
simply by the manner of the bird's flying he cannot 
hope to do a great deal of execution. This Is true 
for more than one reason, but the particular one 
which concerns us now Is the necessity for judging 
the bird's range by Its size and appearance. The 
novice quickly comes to know that a mallard shows 
markings about as far as he can be killed, but if he 
is looking for trimmings of chestnut, white, and 
green, and a little black teal whizzes by at half gun- 
shot he will never believe that It was within reach. 

Nevertheless when experience has taught us to 
recognize at sight the different species of fowl there 



SPEED OF FLIGHT 275 

is no better key to the mysteries of unknown range 
than the markings of the birds. So many yards 
away we can distinguish the drakes from the ducks. 
A certain nearer approach and the chestnut and 
white of the mallard drake's breast no longer blend. 
Close up the very eyes of the bird may be seen, or 
the curl upon his tail, and then even the tyro knows 
that his mark is within easy reach. 

1 






Estimating a bird's distance by his apparent size and the plain- 
ness of his "markings. Lower bird 50 feet, middle one lOO feet, 
upper, 150. 

Probably judging the distance of a wildfowl by 
his markings is the mode most commonly practiced. 
It is usually very reliable, though to be sure atmos- 
pheric conditions would have an influence. In ramy 
or foggy weather the colors might blend when the 



276 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



bird was nearly on top of you. And, by the way, 
estimating the distance or size of the flying game in 
a fog is almost impossible. 

The apparent size of the mark also gives the 
gunner a very good line on Its vicinity to the gun. 
When the bird looms up as big as a balloon you 
know that he ought to be within gunshot. It is 
here, however, that a man's eyes often deceive his 
reason. After killing a mallard at forty yards, he 
permits a teal at thirty-five to escape because he 
fully believes it is out of range. In like manner, 
impressed with the appearance of the ducks, an old 
Canada honker will not seem to be half as far away 
as he really is and a lot of forbearance is needed 
to keep from cutting loose while he is yet two gun- 
shot lengths off. A safe plan with the big bird is 
to let him come just as close as he will if he drops 
into the pit. As a matter of fact, that is a pretty 
good plan with any kind of a waterfowl larger 
than a teal, for almost invariably they are not so 
close as they appear to be. 

With very small birds the opposite might be 
true, as for example a quail at forty yards looks a 
long distance off, many would pronounce him from 
fifty to sixty yards away. This accounts for most 
of the sixty-yard shots on quail that we read about, 
the bird really being under forty oftener than not. 

Judging the distance of the target by the rapid- 
ity with which it approached and passed the gun 
would be reliable if a man had his bump of mathe- 



SPEED OF FLIGHT 277 

matlcs highly developed and nothing else to do. 
The fowl being above our heads, with its markings 
showing clearly, should it seemingly require a long 
time to pass out of range, so that if need be a half 
dozen shots could be fired at it, we can safely as- 
sume that it was quite out of gunshot to begin 
with. 

This reminds me of the efforts of a young friend 
of mine on his first duck shoot. He said that he 
had no trouble about getting an aim on some of 
the birds, but that others drummed by so fast that 
he couldn't shoot at them at all. I found that he 
was banging away at all the high-flying flocks while 
the birds that whistled by his head escaped with- 
out drawing fire. In a modified way this happens 
to more than one novice. 

Correctly estimating the distance of the mark will 
not avail us much unless we can at the same time 
closely calculate the speed of flight. The lead that 
would kill mallards right along will miss every teal 
that wings past us; or if by accident the beginner 
first learns to connect with the teal, he will be dis- 
gusted at missing the slow flying greenheads and 
pintail while apparently hanging right over his 
head. Indeed, the expert gunner is often dismayed 
to find that he cannot change his swing to adapt it 
to a slow mov^ing mark after becoming accustomed 
to a speedy one. He perceives at once that he 
should do so, but shooting instinct and habit be- 
tray him. It is often laughable to see a crack shot 



278 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

lead a rabbit three feet too much when bunny hops 
up among the scattered quail. 

The ordinary manner of estimating the lead for 
a bird is not in feet, as might be expected, but in 
lengths of the bird. For instance, at fifty yards 



Estimating distance to hold ahead in lengths of the bird 

ten feet appears a very short distance, but a bird 
that is known to be twelve inches long seems very 
small also; nevertheless, by taking ten of his lengths 
we can safely assume that we are ten feet ahead of 
him. This rule, of course, pertains to any distance, 



SPEED OF FLIGHT 279 

while by attempting to work in feet we will find 
that the eye will deceive us with every varying 
range. Not one inexperienced shot in a dozen can 
come closer than two feet to estimating the distance 
apart of two poles at fifty yards, not to mention 
measuring off ten feet in the air with nothing to 
serve as a guide or comparison. Despite this, the 
novice may guess off ten lengths with sufficient ac- 
curacy to insure a kill. 

After a time the final dependence of every vet- 
eran shot comes to be shooting habit. He glances 
at the flying quarry, swings upon it, and pulls when 
he feels he is right, with deadly results. The feel- 
ing of where to hold becomes so strong that no 
manner of reasoning or instruction would change 
his point of aim. This is not from any form of 
instinct, but simply because he swung so and killed 
many times before. He finally does it all without 
second thought, or first thought either, and should 
you ask him how much he led he wouldn't remem- 
ber, either feet or lengths. Perhaps he might de- 
clare that he didn't lead at all, or barely shot in 
front; this because his mind was upon other things. 

Notwithstanding the above this style of shooting 
can be safely imitated by the novice. Humanity 
is so constituted that it must learn things slowly, 
through a process of reasoning, and reason only 
can lay a sure foundation for the so-called shooting 
instinct. If there is any royal road to success in 



28o THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

wing-shooting the writer has never known anyone 
to strike it. Practice and study, practice and study; 
you will never become perfect, but you can become 
expert. 



CHAPTER VII 

HINTS ON SHOOTING DIFFERENT GAME 
BIRDS 

THE limits of this book will not permit me to 
treat shooting the various game birds at 
length. Indeed, full instructions for han- 
dling the ordinary varieties of game which fall be- 
fore the shotgun in this country would require a 
volume of itself. The best that I can do in this 
one chapter on the subject is to give a few hints 
which the beginner may find worth consulting. 

The Bob White Quail 

This little fellow is to head the list because he is 
the most widely distributed and best loved of all 
our game birds. In all the South, the West to the 
mountains, and throughout the Middle States, not 
a sportsman can be found who will not assert a 
fondness for quail shooting, the sport of many being 
limited to this one bird. The friendly brown chap 
ranges from Minnesota to the southern extrem- 
ity of Florida, and in all this region the lad who 

281 



282 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

has any shooting instinct born in him must have 
longed to follow the pointers and the quail, years 
ere he was able to bear the weight of a gun. 

Little Bob affords shooting under many condi- 
tions, some of them so easy as to make him one of 
the least difficult of all our game birds to bag, and 
others quite hard enough to call forth the highest 
skill of the most expert gun. The tyro can kill 
some quail, and the practiced shot will fall far short 
of securing them all. 

The marked characteristics of quail are that he 
lies best to the dog and rises nearer the gun than 
any other game bird of the uplands; he is found 
both in the open and in heavy cover; he can be 
pursued on foot, on horseback, and sometimes in 
wagons; the bevies break away all in a bunch, with 
a tremendous rush and whir of wings, with a start- 
ling rapidity only rivaled by the ruffed grouse; and 
he is a winged athlete, capable of swerving and 
dodging when occasion demands in a manner to 
shame a jack snipe. Parenthetically permit me to 
venture here the opinion that quail do not dodge 
maliciously, their powers in this respect being mere- 
ly called forth by circumstances. 

In an open, level, ragweed field, where the vege- 
tation is from knee to waist high, Bob sails away 
on an even keel, as straight as an arrow, whereupon 
a right and left should be within the powers of the 
average shot. However, let trees and brush inter- 
vene and the course of the little bird is beyond the 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 283 

foresight of man; then, too, he will swerve so 
quickly as to escape a charge of shot that has been 
sent direct for him. 

One of the difficulties of quail shooting lies in 
the very fact that would apparently make his killing 
a simple proposition, his rising near the gun. Let 
me illustrate: If a quail rose within ten feet of 
the gun and continued sailing around the shooter's 
head at a mile a minute gait, the chances are that 
he couldn't be killed in ten shots, both the bird and 
the gun changing angle with a rapidity beyond the 
ability of the mind to calculate. In the same way a 
close springing bird may change his angle with re- 
gard to the gun so rapidly as to entail a long and 
accurate swing before he can be covered. 

He may rise within twenty feet of the gun, be 
killed within fifty feet, and yet meantime he has 
half boxed the compass. For such a shot as this 
the poise of the gunner's body must be maintained 
very nicely, if he is to turn half about without dis- 
turbing the balance, and at the same time cover a 
small, rapidly moving object with precision. This 
lengthy swing is -^ mechanically troublesome propo- 
sition on the principle that anything at all hard to 
accomplish becomes more trying the longer contin- 
ued. Making a long and accurate swing with a 
shotgun might aptly be compared with rifle shoot- 
ing at a thousand yards. Any rifleman could hit 
the bull's-eye If you put him close enough, and the 
shotgun shooter could best place his charge upon 



284 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



the mark when he did not have to swing the arm 
at all. 

The nature of the quail's flight frequently makes 
this long swing unavoidable. The bird may rise 
to the north, pass to the west, and be killed to the 
south. Had it been possible to foresee that the 
bird would swing about to the south before being 
killed, the gun might have been 
pointed there, rendering unneces- 
sary a complex gun movement, 
but meantime the quarry would 
probably have gone in some 
other direction. The quail work 
that calls for care and skill is 
cover shooting, and the only safe 
rule there is to point your gun 
as near the bird as you can when 
he breaks and shoot as quickly 
as you can get on. 

It is all well enough to give 
the trite advice not to shoot too 
quickly, give the bird time 
Tinning on him enough to Straighten out, but 
half the time that this is done no shot will be fired 
at all. An old German hunting axiom covers 
this ground: "Any time you fail to shoot you 
have made a miss." We have all been out 
with the individual who withheld his fire because 
he "couldn't get on to that fellow," and he is a 
most exasperating companion where the other gun 




HINTS OX SHOOTING 285 

is waiting for him to shoot. The promptest pos- 
sible work is requisite in quail shooting, the nerves 
of the gunner awaiting a rise being really keyed 
up as high as those of a sprinter on the mark listen- 
ing for the pistol shot. A trained quail shot can 
be made to fairly jump into the air by roughly imi- 
tating the rush of the bird's wings. 

This idea of waiting for a quail to fly a certain 
distance reminds me of the advice of dear old 
Frank Forester. His scheme was never to cock his 
piece until the bird was on the wing, then raise the 
left hammer, shift and pull up the right, by which 
time the shooter would have recovered his cool- 
ness, and the mark would be just the distance to be 
killed with ease and absolute certainty. I tried the 
plan when a boy, and can fully believe an old mar- 
ket gunner who said that Frank Forester never 
could shoot quail. The time to shoot a quail in 
the brush is when and where you can see him; the 
opportunity perhaps not lasting a quarter of a sec- 
ond. 

The quail shot must possess mechanical steadi- 
ness, rapidity of action, nerve force, and nerve con- 
trol. Mechanically there is no comparison between 
following, making a half turn and cutting down a 
quail at fifty feet, and throwing up the gun with a 
five-inch swing to lead a mallard ten feet at fifty 
yards. Which of the shots will be the more difii- 
cult of accomplishment is a matter of training and 
experience. The quail shot must possess mechan- 



286 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

ics and nerve, the duck hunter, shooting knowledge. 
Personally I believe that quail work takes a great 
deal more out of a man, so that killing fifty quail 
will result in a nerve exhaustion that would not 
accompany bagging a hundred ducks. 

Sporting writers are disposed to dwell upon the 
necessity for holding high in quail shooting, didac- 
tically stating that nearly all misses either go low 
or fall behind. Our literary gunners either get this 
idea from one another, accepting it without question 
as people do most of their wisdom, or their logic, 
so far as they have any, is that as the bird is rising 
from the ground, the charge must necessarily drop 
beneath unless care be taken to hold above. This 
theory really applies to pigeon shooting from the 
traps, originating from the demands of that sport. 

The plain principle that should be remembered is 
that any bird flying away from the gun, beneath 
the line of aim, demands high holding whether or 
not the mark is rising; on the other hand, a target 
above the level of the eye may require low holding 
even when it is gradually rising. Let us make this 
plain. A bird rises near the gun and the weapon 
is pointed there, the muzzle being directed down 
toward the ground. Now the mark may fly away 
nearly along the ground, as pigeons often do, and 
yet the line of aim must steadily rise until the gun 
is nearly in a horizontal position. 

On the contrary, if the bird rises sharply at the 
first bound to a height some distance above the gun 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 287 

and then goes oft level, or ev^en rises somewhat, the 
gun win first be elevated to an angle of perhaps 
forty-five degrees and then with the receding target 
must drop until near the horizontal. Applying this 
principle we find that shots must be directed high 
for all outgoing birds that are beneath the level of 
the eye and low for all outgoing birds that are 
above the level of the eye unless they continue to 
rise at a very sharp angle. 

I shall call attention briefly to the shots that are 
liable to go high; those In which the tendency is to 
fall under; the manner of flight when the charge 
often strikes behind; and where the error will be 
leading too much. To begin with, permit me to 
repeat a statement previously made that in upland 
shooting only the occasional bird requires any great 
amount of lead. The obvious reason for this Is 
that any target which rises close to the gun must 
in the nature of things go away from it and can- 
not maintain a right-angled flight for any great 
distance. 

A bird may be readily overshot when he is flying 
straight away and perfectly level, in consequence of 
the line of swing being so very short. The gun 
comes to the shoulder pointing but a few inches be- 
neath the target; then if it is brought up quickly the 
probability is that it travels above the mark while 
the trigger is being pressed. The problem of the 
shooter here is to start his line of swing sufficiently 
below the mark so that the finger can receive fair 



288 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

warning before the time comes to pull. Another 
shot often going high is when the bird rises to 
some little elevation and then drives away with a 
lowering flight before the aim is secured. 

One of the most troublesome of open quail shots 
to gauge is when the little chap rises near the gun 
to a height of twenty or thirty feet and then goes 
off level. The natural inclination is to swing after 
him, unconscious that he is really going down to- 
ward the horizontal line and that the aim must in 
many instances be taken at least a foot low. An- 
other quail shot in which few ever become profi- 
cient is the incomer. Flying low as this bird does, 
should he be allowed to approach within less than 
forty-five feet it is almost impossible to strike him 
owing to the rapidity with which the gun must be 
moved to keep pace with the flight. The nearer 
the bird comes to you the faster the muzzle swing, 
and at that the bird either outpaces you or you 
jerk ahead blindly without any aim and kill only 
by accident. The incomer should be fired upon 
when fifty feet or more away, should he be seen in 
time, or, failing to get in the shot there, turn on 
the bird and take him after he passes by. When 
attempting this last feat always hold under such a 
distance as would appear a sure miss, usually a foot 
and a half unless the bird is rising. 

Naturally the shape of a man's gunstock will 
modify his holding for any of the shots that should 
go high or low. This particular flight, the bird 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 



289 



passing overhead and going away, was the most suc- 
cessfully accomplished with the use of one peculiar 
weapon which the author owned fifteen or twenty 
years ago. It was a straight stocked gun to begin 
with, made emphatically so by the addition of a 
Monte Carlo comb which caused It to shoot high 
and to the left. With this piece there was never 
any of the trouble with the incomers that I have 
experienced with other arms. The Incomer was al- 
lowed to pass and then the aim taken about two feet 
low and four Inches to the right, and down he came 
stone dead, seemingly the most certain shot that 
could be taken. 

Shot charges should be de- 
livered high when the game 
rises so wild as to require 
snapping before reaching the 
end of its climbing bound, 
the snap shot being demand- 
ed to prevent the quarry 
getting beyond range. Un- 
der such circumstances the 
line of aim would not follow 
the line of flight with a 
swing, but would pass 
straight up In front to the 
connecting point. Such shots 
as this more often occur in 
prairie chicken shooting than 
with quail. Another prob- ''"t;|i„g'''.'he'°bri.,''""'' 




290 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

lem that necessitates quick perception is when the 
bird meets some obstruction to his flight. The in- 
clination of a quail is always to jump over rather 
than dodge under anything that comes in his way, 
the rise beginning some distance ere he reaches 
the obstruction. Hence watch your mark closely, 
should he be winging toward a low tree or brush, 
for he is nearly certain to rise, and it is then a safe 
rule to hold over anyway. 

It should be known that the majority of under 
shots are due, not so much to the flight of the bird, 
as to the nerves of the gunner. When there is need 
of quick action, in a semi-snap or rapid swing, with 
the sportsman's nerves tensely strung, there is more 
than a possibility of the finger betraying the judg- 
ment by letting off ere the piece has quite traveled 
up to cover the mark. In every instance of this 
kind the charge must either go low. or behind, and 
usually both. 

Take it for granted that in upland shooting two- 
thirds of the misses that fall beneath and back are 
the result of rebellious nerves. Nerves are espe- 
cially hard to manage where the swing is a long one, 
which we have shown it must often be with quail, 
and hence the pigeon shooter's axiom of "shoot 
high and in front" might apply to Bob White, only 
it should read "don't pull until you are on." If you 
cannot avoid doing this, harden the trigger of your 
gun. 

Individuals differ, and the personality of the gun- 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 291 

ner must always gov^ern largely, but the writer has 
always had his best success in quail shooting by 
firing a semi-snap shot with the first barrel and 
swinging after with the second. With practice, too, 
it will be found that the gun can be swung with 
greater ease and certainty, and a better view main- 
tained of the mark, when the head is held upright, 
free of the gunstock. 

Prairie Chicken Shooting 

Chicken shooting was once such a simple business 
as scarcely to deserve the name of sport, for the 
half-grown chicks were killed in August while still 
under charge of the old hen. At present the hunt- 
ing of these grouse begins with October, and the 
work upon the mature and pow^erful fowl is not 
only elegant sport, but of a nature to test the skill 
of any man. The bevies now become broken up, 
scattering about singly, in pairs, and small bunches, 
and then with the approach of winter packing into 
coveys of several hundred. The larger the packs 
or the colder the weather, the wilder chickens be- 
come. 

The very finest of prairie grouse shooting is to 
be had on the occasional warm, sunny days that 
come in November and December. Then while 
the big fellows are not tame, and certainly not tame 
shooting, they will frequently permit the gunner to 
approach within half gunshot, and a few brace of 



292 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

the powerful birds in the strength of their lusty 
growth and the beauty of their winter plumage will 
afford intense satisfaction to any sportsman who 
prefers quality to quantity. We will treat of bag- 
ging these strong, brown fellows rather than the 
September fledglings that even the tyro would re- 
quire no special instruction to kill. 

The full-grown pinnated grouse is rather more 
powerful of wing than a quail, though from his size 
he seems to move slower. He is, however, not so 
sharp in getting away from the mark as his little 
cousin, and hence if he lay to a point like the latter 
would be easier shooting, but the late fall chicken 
doesn't lie as close as a quail, the rise being any- 
where from twenty yards to a long gunshot. It fol- 
lows that straightaway chances are the exception 
rather than the rule, and the distance of the spring 
makes it needful that nearly every shot be well 
judged and given its proper allowance ahead. Al- 
most invariably daylight should be seen between the 
point of aim and the bird, the lead being anywhere 
from a foot to eight feet where an old cock is cross- 
ing at forty-five yards. 

In the course of a day upon the prairies nearly 
every description of shot known in wing-shooting 
may be afforded. Occasionally a bird will rise un- 
der your feet and drive away low over the short 
coated prairie, but the majority will be quartering 
shots at every conceivable angle from a straight- 
away to a direct incomer. Frequently the cackling 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 293 

chaps will spring to a height of thirty or forty feet, 
and then drop away with whip and twist and flash of 
wings toward the distant horizon — the most care- 
ful gunner finding plenty of empty space along these 
curves of flight. Numbers will cross at right angles, 
demanding as much lead as a mallard duck, and 
sometimes a pack will come stringing along like 
English driven game, yielding the sportsman as hot 
a thirty seconds as he ever experienced. 

The chicken being a heavy bird cannot reach top 
speed so promptly as a quail, and they have a way 
of climbing for the first few yards that keeps them 
within gunshot, when a quail or ruffed grouse would 
be putting such space between himself and the gun 
that shooting at him would be useless. 

I should estimate that a quail would fly forty-five 
feet the first second after his jump, a ruffed grouse 
from forty-five to fifty-five feet, a chicken perhaps 
not above thirty, though in doing this he might rise 
to a height of twenty feet. As a consequence pin- 
nated grouse can sometimes be bagged that take 
wing forty yards from the gun, but it calls for a 
high degree of shooting skill to gauge both his speed 
away from the gun and his angle of elevation. With 
these long range shots the gun should always come 
up to the point of discharge with the least possible 
lost motion, something of accuracy being sacrificed 
to prompt delivery of the charge, care being taken 
to shoot plenty high — sometimes as much as two 
feet above the climbing fowl. This work has more 



294 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

resemblance to jumping ducks than anything quail 
shooting develops. 

The mature chicken is suspicious, preferring 
rather to trust in the strength of his strong wings 
than to any ability to hide. With the wild fel- 
lows it is better to chance a miss with a rough snap 
that has power to drive the pellets home in place of 
a precise aim that could only rattle the shot upon his 
stiff wing feathers. Nevertheless, I have found the 
quick half snap to be the most killing style, care 
being taken to steady the gun before lifting it to 
the mark. 

The second barrel will naturally follow the first 
in a quick swing and should snap in after the first 
with the same celerity as in pigeon shooting from 
the traps. The best policy in all wing-shooting is 
to consider any bird near enough for the second 
barrel that was within reach of the first. Other- 
wise an indecisive second barrel will grow upon you 
to the detriment of all your shooting. 

Where the utmost rapidity is requisite the obvi- 
ous thing to do is to get your weapon to shoulder 
with the flash of the springing bird; then in the 
slight interim needed to steady the piece the calcu- 
lation for lead can be made, and the charge sent 
there instantly, care being taken not to jerk the 
weapon with uncontrollable roughness. With the 
shooter walking up his bird, and of course without 
having gun, legs, or body in shooting position, a 
grouse can be stopped by a fast man within five 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 295 

yards of where it breaks cover, the time taken to 
accomplish all the separate, complex movements not 
being over half a second. 

Only the wisest old chicken dog will be found 
serviceable on November grouse, an animal which 
can scent his game at from fifty to two hundred 
yards and one that will not attempt to approach it 
except in close company with the gun. On birds 
that have packed and become excessively wild, two 
men may often work together to advantage, the one 
hiding in the grass while the other drives the game 
over him. 

There are times when not a single chicken will 
permit an unconcealed gunner to approach a foot 
within one hundred yards. Under the circumstances 
the only recourse is to either drive the birds or to 
endeavor to shoot them from horseback or wagon. 
A horse can sometimes be galloped right among the 
fowl, especially in a country where they have be- 
come accustomed to the unmolesting cowpuncher. 
A driv'en wagon sometimes proves equally service- 
able, but the second time you endeavor to drive up 
to a flushed pack you will learn that the wise birds 
have sized up the situation perfectly, and chickens 
can fly about over the rough prairie faster than 
horses can trot. 

The Ruffed Grouse 

The ruffed grouse is the wisest of all his tribe, 
of which all have brains, and as a winged sprinter 



296 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

is the quickest away from scratch of anything that 
flies. The quail dodges with phenomenal sudden- 
ness when anything obstructs his path, the wind 
sometimes unbalances a jack snipe, giving his flight 
the acme of eccentricity, but the partridge does it all 
deliberately and maliciously. With gunner and 
ruffed grouse, as with pitcher and batter, it is a 
guessing game, and whichever outguesses comes off 
the victor. Flush a quail in the thick woods and 
should there be an opening he may fly straight down 
it; a partridge might, too, but be sure he will not. 
I have seen one of the birds sitting before a dog's 
point in a perfectly open spot, but there was a tree 
within twenty feet. I planned to get a shot at him 
before he could reach that tree, and ordered the 
dog to crawl in while I stood with gun ready. The 
wise old scoundrel got up with provoking delibera- 
tion, spread his tail, legged it around behind the 
tree and then took wing with a tremendous hurrah. 

In partridge shooting, knowledge of the bird's 
habits will avail more than shooting skill. The 
hunter should have that rare sort of partridge 
wisdom that few are born with and less ev^er ac- 
quire. One man always luckily selects the spot 
where the fish will bite if there are any, and the old 
partridge crank can forever place himself In just 
the spot to get his opportunity, while all the other 
fellows have to take what happens to come. 

The thing for the ruffed grouse hunter to do is 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 297 

to shoot and never count shells. Should the bird 
fly behind a tree and not reappear, shoot the tree in 
two if you can. When he simply roars in beyond 
the limbs, make no hesitation, for that is the very 
place to kill him. Swing along on the line of flight, 
so much of it as you have seen, take it for granted 
that he Is still going the same course, at the same 
rate of speed, and when you know you are right 
pull with as much confidence as though the bird 
were yet In plain sight. Then listen for the bird 
to fall — and sometimes he will. If he doesn't 
simply blame the limbs, they have no shooting con- 
ceit to be aggrieved. Seeing sparkles and flashes of 
light glinting through the woods, left there by the 
partridge's wings, shoot as far ahead as your con- 
science will let you, and more than likely another 
bird will be added to the bag. 

In the rare times when you catch a ruffed grouse 
In the open, as In little isolated clumps from which 
he must fly, or along old, overgrown fencerows, he 
Is no more difficult target than a quail or chicken. 
He Is quicker away from the gun in heavy cover, 
but In full flight has no greater speed than either of 
the others. Generally no great amount of lead 
need be taken, but the shots he affords are of such 
diversified character that there can be no such thing 
as systematic partridge shooting. The marksman 
must simply suit his style to the nature of the shot 
as It comes. At the odd times when an easy shot 



298 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

appears, make sure of that bird, with all the pre- 
cision and steadiness possessed, for he is the bird 
that should add weight to the back coat pocket. 

When there is but a ten-foot opening in the trees 
snap the bird there no matter what the odds against 
a kill, that is where the fun comes in and the rare 
pleasure of a kill that occurs rarely. The ruffed 
grouse, by the way, is the only bird upon which the 
ethics of sportsmanship should tolerate the use of a 
cylinder bored gun. When this bird is killed fairly 
upon the wing I should not feel disposed to lec- 
ture the man who used a bell muzzled piece. Like 
the grouse hunter, the partridge dog just happens 
to be one. If nature hasn't done a great deal for 
him man can do little. Training can teach the dog 
to hunt close to the gun, to flush to order, and to 
be stanch, and then he may or may not be a par- 
tridge dog. 

It is well to hunt ruffed grouse with a reliable 
companion, one that can be depended upon not to 
shoot you first and feel sorry afterwards. The 
right kind of a hunting partner will enable both guns 
to secure better results, since the second gun will 
often get its chance while the wily bird is out- 
maneuvering the other. Further advantages, such 
as marking the birds, will be obvious without dwell- 
ing upon them. 

Next to purely open shots the easiest partridge 
problem is when the bird is climbing through the 
thin limbs or just as he tops the undergrowth; the 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 299 

hardest Is where he drops, like a bullet, out of a 
tree and skims the ground. One partridge killed in 
three shots is good shooting; fifty per cent, on quail 
is of about the same order, and three out of four 
chickens. 

Snipe Shooting 

The writer once hung a jury because he knew the 
other eleven fellows were wrong. They wished to 
clear a man of the charge of murder who had shot 
another in the back, the plea being self-defense. Ut- 
terly regardless of the risk of being in a minority 
of one, I propose to maintain now that snipe are 
the easiest to kill of all our common game birds 
with the exception of the rail which at best doesn't 
deserve to be listed as game. That the snipe is a 
difficult shooting proposition seems to be one of the 
popular sporting errors that appear to have been 
accepted as an inheritance. Naturally the fiction 
writer and the book-learned gunner perpetuate the 
error, considering themselves surely upon safe 
ground when dwelling upon the difficulties of snipe 
shooting. 

It is true that jack sometimes flies very erratically 
on windy days when he finds trouble in balancing 
himself while gaining sufficient momentum to pro- 
gress steadily. Like other birds, too, his temper is 
affected by cold, raw weather, or when he is hun- 
gry and food scarce; at such times he has little 
hesitation about getting up well out of range and 



300 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

leaving promptly for some more genial snipe world. 
When flushing wild it is quite a literal statement of 
fact that snipe are hard to hit, for if tied to a post 
out of gun range not many would be hurt. It ap- 
pears, too, that a snipe really requires some ballast 
of fat if he is to sail upon an even keel, the thin 
little chaps surprising themselves with aerial gym- 
nastics. 

But in actual snipe weather, warm, sunny days, 
with cover good and food plentiful, jack snipe shoot- 
ing is little more of a feat than smashing clay birds, 
than which there is no simpler shotgun work with 
which to compare. 

The statement often made that the shooter should 
always withhold his fire until the bird is from twen- 
ty-five to thirty yards distant is the height of ab- 
surdity. The same shooting principle applies to 
snipe that holds with any other game bird, catch 
him before he becomes hard. When these birds 
are lying well to the dog and gun they get up 
lazily and float away with long, easy bounds. The 
first jump may carry his snipeship twenty feet, and 
then with a twist of his body he covers half a 
dozen yards at a more or less acute angle, but at 
the end of one of these aerial leaps the bird hangs 
for the fraction of a second, and there you can 
almost catch him with a rifle bullet. 

The preliminary spring with accompanying saucy 
"scaipe" should warn the gunner and the end of the 
next leg of the zigzag ought to find poor jack ready 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 301 

to be smoothed down and placed In the bag, the 
man of ordinary quickness striking his mark inside 
of sixty feet or not over forty-five from where it 
broke cover. The motion of a snipe is really some- 
thing like that of a skater who shoves out first upon 
one foot and then the other, the bird, however, 
making longer and quicker strokes, which become 
very choppy when he is sprinting. 

There is a bit of up and down movement to the 
flight of a snipe under some conditions, but not a 
great deal, and when he is passing or circling the 
gun, the in and out motion is little in evidence, and 
he flies practically as level as other birds. When 
going straightaway his criss-cross style is most ap- 
parent, and such shots are the hardest in conse- 
quence. It is this feature of his flight that makes 
hunting down wind the most effective, since the bird 
has a preference for rising against the wind, and 
will then beat back, affording a crossing shot, while 
should the shooter walk up wind his target would 
likely be a straightaway. Nevertheless, up wind 
or down wind, should the quarry rise within twenty 
yards, he cannot escape without hazarding both 
barrels, one of which will generally suflfice. 

The movements of a snipe should never be fol- 
lowed by the line of swing. To do so would render 
his flight as hard to solve as sporting literature has 
pronounced. Get the gun up pointed under him 
and then snap ahead on one of his long bounds 
before he can tack. The thing Is so easily done that 



302 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

I will leave It to any experienced snipe shot if there 
is any great feat about cutting down twenty of the 
little beauties straight. 

Indeed, this bird is one that calls for a hunter's 
forbearance in the matter of bag. Some years ago 
immense bags of snipe were common. The record 
so far as I know was something over six hundred 
birds killed by a Louisiana planter in one day. In 
the vicinity of St. Louis two hundred snipe a day 
were not considered shooting worthy of special note, 
and no snipe were in unless fifty could be killed. 
To-day twenty-five longbills should be considered 
the limit per gun, though the number may be se- 
cured in a few hours' shooting over favorable 
ground. 

Jack is the gentlest and most unsuspicious little 
vagabond In the world. Should you miss him he 
will pitch about for a few minutes, perhaps to set- 
tle down again within fifty yards of the gun for 
another hazard with the death whistling lead. 

A clever shot on snipe should account for eighty 
per cent, of the birds shot at, a performance not 
to be expected with any other upland game bird. 
They are not only a simple proposition to hit but 
are easily killed, which permits the use of lightly 
charged and small gauge weapons. 

Wildfowl Shooting 

Duck shooting is the billiards of work with a 
scatter gun. The uniform flight of the fowl, the 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 303 

absence of any interference with the aim, the pre- 
paredness of the shooter from having been given 
due warning of the approaching bird, tend to place 
every factor of the shooting problem at the gun- 
ner's command. Always, however, the hunter's 
skill and experience must equal the demand, the 
whole situation resolving itself finally into a knowl- 
edge of where to hold. In quail shooting a man's 
difficulty lies in being unable to place his charge to 
the spot which he knows is right ; in duck shooting 
the main question is where to point the gun, the 
pattern being readily sent to the estimated lead. It 
is nearly as easy to direct the aim ten feet in front 
of the mark as two feet, always provided you know 
it should lead ten feet and not two or six. 1 here- 
fore, conclude that every successful shot must be 
made with an absolutely correct estimate of speed 
of flight and distance of mark. When this can be 
done with regularity the pleasure of verifying the 
judgment with a long, clean kill is superior to that 
connected with any other style of shooting. 

The most that I can do here Is to call attention 
to some of the various shots which the wildfowler 
will be called upon to solve as primary lessons in 
the duck shooting game. 

The overhead, incoming shot is made by throw- 
ing the gun beneath -the target and pitching it rap- 
idly upward until it passes the bird, firing the in- 
stant the mark is quite hidden by the barrels. Lit- 
tle conscious allowance ahead will be found neces- 



304 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 




sary in making this shot, but 
the speedier the mark the 
more rapidly the gun should 
be swung. It can readily be 
understood that with a rap- 
Idly moving muzzle a greater 
lead will be taken automati- 
cally at a long distance than 
a short. In any event It has 
been found In practice that 
swinging the gun from be- 
neath to cover and hide the 
mark will usually result in a 
kill. This Is probably the 
easiest shot made In duck 
shooting for the first barrel. 

No sooner, though, has this first load been fired 
than the second charge has Its work cut out for it. 
Many species of ducks will tower with the bang of 
the gun, maybe rising straight into the air or even 
beating back upon the course they came. In conse- 
quence the left barrel If not sent in promptly will 
have to be fired well above and possibly, paradox- 
ical as It may seem, behind the duck, considering 
the route it was traveling when the right was pulled. 
Most likely the scared flock will merely sheer off, 
mounting at the same time, and the new angle of 
flight must be Instantly reckoned with If the shot is 
to go home. 

A duck that is coming at a high clip which he 



Shootina.' an incomer 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 30^ 

deflects Into a sheering, curving tower is about as 
hard a nut to crack as comes under the wingshoot- 
er's mallet. One half second may take the mark 
out of range, and a man's thinking apparatus must 
work fast. Certain other varieties of duck, like 
the bluewing teal and the canvasback, will not flinch 
or tower, but continue directly on with redoubled 
speed. Now the bird will pass the gun which must 
turn on him, affording quite a different shot from 
the other. Then in order to lead the hold must be 
low — well under — sometimes as much as three feet, 
but the farther the mark is allowed to go the closer 
it is covered, since with distance it comes more di- 
rectly into the line of lire. 

Many birds passing well out will also swerve and 
rise with the report, which necessitates a lessening 
of the front lead to direct the second charge higher. 
A certain duck might be killed by shooting eight 
feet ahead of him, but to kill his mate with the 
second barrel It should go only two feet in front 
and two feet high. On firing the right barrel an 
experienced shot ought to be able to foretell pretty 
well what the remainder of the flock would do by 
knowing the species of fowl. The acme of duck 
shooting is to make both shots tell, the Indifferent 
performer frequently being effective with the first. 

It will usually be discovered that birds which 
pass to the right call for a greater lead than those 
flying to the left, because a right-hand gunner swings 
less freely and rapidly in that direction. In the 



3o6 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

case of the writer, a third more lead must be given 
when swinging to the right. Of course the opposite 
would be true were the shooter left-handed. 

The surest double is to be made while the birds 
are approaching the gun, never permitting them to 
pass by. Turning to shoot in a restricted blind is 
trying and more so from a duck boat. If the ducks 
are close up take the leader first, but if farther out 
select the rear fowl and those closer up can hardly 
escape being shot at. There is room for coolness 
and good judgment in this. Should you choose the 
leading bird and fire too quickly, those behind him 
may climb out of reach, while trying for a rear 
fowl after they are well in may force a difficult 
turn on the others. 

A descending bird is a hard shot, both by reason 
of his increased speed, and because a gun cannot 
will be swung down, and the descending line of 
flight must be met by a still gun, as in snap shoot- 
ing, causing a loss of all the advantage of swinging 
with the target. A rising bird is far easier, and 
hence it is well in decoy shooting to pull just as 
the fowl is hovering to alight, or take him in his 
upward climb away from danger. 

In jumping ducks close study should be given as 
to the variety of fowl we are starting. A mallard 
usually climbs nearly straight upward, a shot just 
In front of the bill should get him. On the con- 
trary, a teal scurries off low along the marsh, and 
the holding must be well ahead and only a trifle 



HINTS ON SHOOTING 307 

high. A widgeon makes one great bound upward and 
then goes off at a sharp angle. If quick enough 
the hunter's surest shot on the widgeon is at the end 
of this leap when the duck will be about ten feet 
high. Any dwelling upon the aim here is fatal since 
the bird will change his line of flight acutely, and 
a long swing will have to be made after the speed- 
ing mark. 

A pintail climbs and gradually bears off, at the 
same time circling the gun. When jumped he is one 
of the easiest birds to kill, because of this circling 
habit which keeps him within range of the gun for 
such a length of time. A greenwing teal behaves 
very like a mallard but is quicker in action. It is 
seldom that any except fresh water ducks are killed 
by jumping them from the edge of a marsh. 



CHAPTER VIII 
FIELD ETIQUETTE 

1AM aware that in writing of field etiquette the 
chapter must have a didactic ring with its con- 
sequent dullness. My advice, therefore, to 
all who are fully acquainted with the unwritten laws 
that govern the sportsman on field and marsh, is 
to "cut this out." However, I do not feel that it 
would be right to close this book without a ward 
on the subject, for there are two classes that I wish 
to reach, the novice who thinks he is privileged to 
shoot at everything that moves, saving only those 
guides who wear red caps, and the veteran shot who 
thinks that he must make a bag. 

There is no place where the golden rule can be 
better applied than in the shooting field. If we 
govern ourselves by this old precept in the treat- 
ment of our fellows and apply the principles of a 
"square deal" to shooting the game, there need be 
little fear of any hunter forfeiting the title of sports- 
man. 

Some wise man has said that every man is a bar- 
barian at heart, and only a gentleman from policy. 
308 



FIELD ETIQUETTE 309 

There is just enough truth in this to make the say- 
ing disagreeable. Whatever he may be by nature, 
military discipline gives to every soldier the sem- 
blance of a brave man, the needs of business and 
civilization force us all to masquerade in garments 
of courtesy, the one suit much like another, but a 
man's true nature shows through his hunting clothes, 
and it has been aptly said that you never know 
even a friend until you have gone camping with him 
a week. Certainly pursuing wild things is an ele- 
mentary sport, and the elementary in us is liable to 
be thrown into relief, betraying qualities good and 
bad that were never seen before. 

Too many men afield are governed by the idea 
that It Is every one for himself anci the devil take 
the hindmost. Put them In a pen and they will 
have the biggest ear of corn, though they know that 
in the nature of things this will lead to their dining 
alone in future. Courtesy afield is bread cast upon 
the waters which will surely return, but many seem 
bent upon eating their own bread at the time, taking 
chances on picking up that cT someone else as it 
comes back. 

The absolutely selfish individual can get along 
nicely in all his shooting and fishing trips, with the 
greatest satisfaction to everybody with the possible 
exception of himself, by going entirely alone. Should 
he need human companionship a darkey or well- 
trained English domestic will serve him best. He 
can then take the first shot at every bevy, and every 



3IO THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

bird that follows belongs to him; he can have the 
choice duck blind and all the decoys; the best boat 
or the only boat is his; he can have the snipe cor- 
ner all to himself; there are none to question his 
superiority as a marksman, and paid servants will 
be more pliable than any good-tempered friend 
whom he may draft for the purpose. Such a man 
will require no instructions in shooting etiquette or 
any other etiquette, for the uses of politeness are 
only to make companionship agreeable. 

So far as the ethics of game shooting in a sports- 
manlike manner are concerned, a few words on the 
subject will suffice. With the possible exception of 
the wild turkey, which should really be made the 
target for a rifle only, no game bird should ever 
be fired upon when not in full flight. This rule 
must never be broken under any circumstances ex- 
cept to finish a cripple. I have known men who 
considered themselves good sportsmen who would 
shoot a quail or a grouse out of a tree though they 
would not fire upon him when on the ground. Their 
defense was that the bird had forfeited his life by 
taking to a tree and thus refusing them a fair shot. 
This is merely whipping the devil around the stump, 
and such hair-splitters might be greatly tempted to 
take a potshot in the first place were no one present. 

No more should a wild duck ever be killed upon 
the water or at rest, no matter how difficult the 
stalk or how scarce the birds may be. A bag of 
birds killed in any manner except fairly upon the 



FIELD ETIQUETTE 311 

wing must be regarded as having afforded abso- 
lutely no sport, as not a whit better than an utterly 
blank day. Indeed, the latter can bring no after 
regrets and the former surely ought to. 

The only possible excuse for shooting a bird at 
rest is that we may feed our vanity by displaying 
him, or that he is actually needed to satisfy hunger 
— few modern sportsmen are going about hungry 
these days. If the bag is of prime importance, if it 
must be filled regardless of the laws of sport, there 
is nothing to be said further than that the man who 
so feels is purely a meat hunter. Let the conscience 
of a good sportsman govern your actions when out 
all alone where there can be no policeman to knock, 
you over the head for a failure to consider the 
rights of others. 

Rabbits should ne\er be shot unless going full 
tilt, and squirrels are not a fair target for a shot- 
gun, not even when running. For that matter many 
hold that nothing wearing hair or fur should ever 
fall before a smooth bore, and they are not very 
far wrong, either. The rifle is the proper arm for 
such game. 

Shoot no immature birds in season or out, and 
never make a target of anything that is not recog- 
nized as game. The temptation to shoot small birds 
is great at times when the shooting is poor, but 
sportsmen will not do it. 

In flight shooting wildfowl the greatest pleasure 
comes from selecting your bird and cutting him 



312 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

down stone dead. Flock shooting is permissible 
because sanctioned by custom, but there is no great 
satisfaction in letting go into the middle of a flock 
of ducks without aini, however many may be 
bagged. This is especially true of shooting shore 
birds which frequently fly slowly and in large 
bunches. Cripples should always be knocked over 
where at all possible before another shot is fired at 
the living birds. Taking wild shots that are admit- 
tedly beyond the range of the gun is unsportsman- 
like, though nearly all of us must plead guilty to 
that. 

It seems a waste of words to say don't shoot quail, 
snipe, woodcock, or any species of grouse upon the 
ground. As a sportsman, the man who would do 
this has nothing in him worth appealing to. 

Shooting in Company 

Man is a gregarious animal, especially in his 
sports and games. Even the solemn individual who 
plays solitaire likes to have an audience to see 
whether he beats "bogy" or not. Few would en- 
joy shooting and tramping alone for many days in 
succession, yet to enjoy the company of another we 
must make ourselves agreeable. No rule of thumb 
will make a selfish man generous, but possibly a 
word of warning will prevent the novice from drop- 
ping into bad habits. Shooting I have found to de- 
velop three characteristics in a great many: hog- 



FIELD ETIQUETTE 313 

gishness, jealousy, and envy, any one of which is 
liable to become a spoil-sport. 

If your friend is a better shot than you, keep 
your mind off it and do the best you can. Should 
you excel, then for sport's sake give him a show, 
for taking advantage of one who is weaker is not 
to be excused under any code of ethics. 

There are two abominable fellows to shoot with: 
the man who is a good shot and thinks he must sus- 
tain his reputation at whatever cost, and the 
"claimer." Sometimes they are compounded in one, 
and the mixture makes a bitter dose. This man 
knocks down your bird as well as his own with the 
expressed fear that you might have missed. He 
takes all the singles for the same reason — "feared 
you might lose that fellow." He sends his friend 
around to beat the brush for him and drive the 
game out while he takes it in the open. His shoot- 
ing companion always plays dog when one is need- 
ed; the chump invariably pulls the boat and he does 
the shooting. All the birds at which both fire are 
his because he never misses and you probably did. 
At the close of the day's shooting he counts your 
birds and his own with ill-concealed triumph, and 
then goes away to tell of ho^v thoroughly he bested 
you. Have none of him; he is playing you for a 
sucker, a foil to his vanity. While the individual 
illustrated is known to all and will be with us al- 
ways, yet it is not necessary for the novice to pat- 
tern after him. 



314 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

Such simple rules of procedure as I may give here 
are dictated by common sense and a proper regard 
for the rights of others. They are in such com- 
mon observance among sportsmen that it might 
seem a waste of time to put them in type, but I 
have seen them violated so often that it is fair to 
assume that ignorance is as often to blame as sel- 
fishness. 

Beginning with the wildfowl, in duck shooting 
upon public waters, the first man out in the morn- 
ing is entitled to choice of blinds, or his pick of lo- 
cation for a blind. He is then not to be interfered 
with either by another gun stopping near enough 
to scare his birds or by getting upon his line of 
flight. Willfully spoiling the sport of another with- 
out benefitting himself is the game of a city tough 
or a country "rough neck." Of course this has no 
reference to the friends who may from choice shoot 
from the same or adjacent blinds. 

When two guns are shooting from the same hid- 
ing place the leader of an incoming flock of ducks 
should be given to the rear man who is also en- 
titled to fire the first shot. If only one duck or a 
pair come in they belong to the man upon whose 
side they approach. If a flock of birds are passing, 
the gunner they reach last is entitled to give the 
word to fire. Should a pair of blinds be situated a 
short distance apart, as usually happens, one marks- 
man must never be tempted to shoot at birds that 



FIELD ETIQUETTE 31 5 

are passing directly over the other gun until its 
owner has discharged both barrels. Few things 
are more provocative of ill feeling than to have 
one gun take birds that plainly belonged to the 
other, either killing them or driving them away. 
The shooters who will do this belong to the impos- 
sible class — the go it alone and be hanged to them. 
Neither should a man call to birds that are evi- 
dently decoying to another. 

Where two men are shooting from a boat, as in 
jumping ducks, the one pulling while the other han- 
dles the gun, nothing should tempt the oarsman to 
touch his gun — not even stopping cripples that are 
otherwise sure to escape. For the time his sole 
business is to manage the boat. 

With a fixed time to begin and desist from shoot- 
ing upon a marsh, whether the hour was set by law 
or a club, never fail to observe the rule to the min- 
ute. Should the gunner permit himself to be tempt- 
ed into shooting previous to the prescribed time, he 
would be infringing upon the rights of others by 
starting the fowl to flying before the blinds had 
been occupied. Shooting after hours is also an 
unwarranted liberty, as it may injure the sport of 
the following day. 

If any man kills a bird that was undoubtedly 
your shot, claim the fowl and place it in your bag; it 
may teach the selfish shooter a lesson. 

In field shooting two are company and three a 



3i6 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

crowd unless the trio of guns are very steady and 
accustomed to working together. More than three 
guns should never follow one brace of dogs. 

When two men are shooting together, each over 
his own dog, the bird or shot belongs to the man 
whose dog found it, and his friend should never fire 
first unless invited to do so. It is nothing short of 
dishonesty to take the bird that has been found by 
the dog of another except with the owner's express 
permission. Should but one of the party own a dog 
the duties of a host fall upon him, requiring that he 
give his companion a fair share of the shooting. 

In covey shooting an imaginary line should be 
kept in mind, the birds going to the right of this 
belonging to the gun on that side, and all upon the 
other to the left gun. A disagreeable thing that 
will happen now and then is to have both guns 
discharged at one bird. This should occur but rarely 
if care is exercised not to shoot upon the wrong side 
of the line, and when it does the bird belongs to 
the man upon whose ground it fell. 

The business of "wiping the eye" of another, as 
it is called, is not to be commended. The bird be- 
longs to the man upon whose side it breaks until 
he has fired both barrels, neither is he to be inter- 
fered with, hurried, or rattled by the fear of an- 
other charge cutting in. When he has finished 
shooting it will generally be too late for the second 
man to deliver a killing shot, and one that merely 



FIELD ETIQUETTE 317 

pricks or wounds is very unsportsmanlike., A con- 
tinued and deliberate attempt to kill game that has 
been missed by another can only result in develop- 
ing unpleasantness. Shooting at the bird of another 
before he has had time to fire both barrels is an 
indefensible proceeding. 

The owner of the dog which is standing game has 
the right to point out the positions which other guns 
should occupv when the bevy breaks, but his duty 
as host would demand that he did not select the 
place of vantage for himself. If necessary for 
someone to walk the game up he can delegate this 
duty to another or assume it himself. For the time 
being he is master of ceremonies. 

In cover shooting, at least, two guns hunting to- 
gether should be the limit, and these must keep in 
close touch with one another. When of necessity 
they are forced to separate constant signals should 
be exchanged. The man who violates this rule en- 
dangers both himself and his companion. I can 
recall shooting quail with a friend in the hazel 
thickets of Illinois. We took separate paths and 
lost sight of one another for a few seconds. Look- 
ing down a hazel lane I saw my dog pointing. As 
I started for him a quail broke, taking a course 
straight for my head. I dodged and at the same 
time the other gun cracked, overshooting the bird 
and thus missing me. My companion violated two 
rules in thus shooting: flushing birds to the point of 



3i8 THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 

another's dog without permission, and firing at all 
without absolutely knowing the whereabouts of the 
other gun. 

In a nearly similar occurrence a fine young 
sportsman of St. Louis had both eyes shot out. Re- 
member that there is little time to think after the 
game is on the wing, so every precaution must be 
taken previous to flushing the bird, and the man 
who is willing to take the slightest chance of in- 
juring another for the sake of shooting is a criminal 
in the guise of a sportsman. 

I doubt if there is one experienced gunner who 
has not at some time or other had his ears split 
with the sharp crack of nitro powder. More than 
one gunner has had his hearing permanently injured 
by this fool's trick, and many a day has been spoiled 
by it. The author vividly remembers shooting with 
a man who was partially deaf, and who, not being 
able to hear much himself, was utterly reckless about 
other people's ears. When the gentleman did catch 
a sound it seemed that he heard it most plainly, and 
finally while he was busy aiming I let off my gun 
behind his head. The one lesson was enough. 

When field shooting in a settled community never 
fire a shot within less than forty rods of a house, or 
of people at work in the field. There may be ladies 
and children about the place who will be rendered 
nervous by the sound of a gun, and this will finally 
provoke the owner into forbidding all shooting. 
That express permission may have been given to 



FIELD ETIQUETTE 



319 



shoot where you wished Is all the more reason why 
the rights of the generous proprietor should be care- 
fully guarded. For the same reason keep out of 
stock pastures and away from teams; half the ill 
will of farmers toward hunters is engendered by 
reckless shooting that might do damage. 

In shooting by invitation over the lands or 

marshes of another, carefully obey the instructions 

of your host. Should he send you to a part of the 

V estate where you know 

^^ birds are scarce, go there 

^w^ and nowhere else. Nei- 

^^^ ^^^ ther go outside of the 

^^k ^^H^ grounds he marks out 

^^^^^P for you, remembering 

/ '^^^-^v ^'^^^ ^^ ^^^^ "°^ y^^ ^'^y 

1^ -^Mr be held responsible for 
^t^-^^ your conduct in poaching 

on forbidden lands. In 
the same way accept the 
poorest duck blind with- 
out question or com- 
plaint, taking it for 
granted that your host is 
doing the best he can for 
you and that your time 
will come later. The 
position of host to a 
party of gunners is suf- 
Right way to carry a gun afield ficiently trying without 




320 



THE AMERICAN SHOTGUN 



your adding to it by grumbling even to yourself. 

A word now as to the manner of carrying and 
handling the gun: The one big thing to remember 
is never to point an unloaded gun at anything you 
have no private reasons .;r wishing to kill. Little 
need be said relative to carelessly handling loaded 
and cocked guns — they nev'er kill anybody. The 
man who keeps forever covering you with the muz- 
zle of his gun 
should be regarded 
simply as a vicious 
lunatic and proper 
precautions taken. 

In the field three 
positions for carry- 
ing the gun are rec- 
ognized as safe and 
good. The first is 
over the shoulder 
with the side of the 
stock resting upon 
it and the muzzle oi 
the gun pointing up- 
ward* the second is Pi'opei'positionin waiting for a shot 

over the hollow of the arm with the muzzle 
directed away from your companion; the third 
is under the right arm with the barrels pointed to- 
ward the ground. Carrying the arm across the 
back of the neck is unsafe and marks a rowdy with 




FIELD ETIQUETTE 3 2 1 

the same certainty as tilting the hat on the back of 
the head. 

When walking up to a point, if on the left, hold 
the weapon across the body nearly at right angles 
with the muzzle a trifle hi^ 1, but if on the right 
keep the piece directed straight out and down. A 
right and left-handed man shoot together with 
greater ease and security than when both are right 
handed. 

Here are just a few things to be remembered: 
It hurts just as much to be shot accidentally as with 
evil intent. You cannot impress anybody with your 
skill as a shot by beating him through unfair means. 
You cannot obtain a shooting reputation by telling 
people how well you have shot or can shoot. It is 
easy to see hoggishness in the other fellow^ and his 
eyes are as good as yours. Don't borrow a dog or 
a gun or loan either. Don't exceed the bag limit 
or shoot cut of season. Stand for a "square deal" 
yourself and other people will see that you get it. 



THE END 



t >i' ^xi 



US{^ 



Si- 



^ 



